


Protecting Home

by countrygirlsfun



Series: The Life of a Soldier [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Military, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuddling, Established Relationship, Frottage, Hale Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, Kindergarten Teacher Derek Hale, Kitchen Sex, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rich Derek Hale, Softball, Stiles Wears Glasses, soldier Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 09:52:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4430732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countrygirlsfun/pseuds/countrygirlsfun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles Stilinski is now an ex-army sniper and engaged to kindergarten teacher Derek Hale. All he wants is to leave his military service and experiences behind him so he can move on and build his life with Derek.</p><p>But it isn’t always easy when the battlefield follows you home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protecting Home

**Author's Note:**

> Soo, the goal was to finish this before school started and since class starts in, well, an hour, I say I met my goal. 
> 
>  
> 
> I don't know if this is actually graphic violence but we see soldier!Stiles in action which ends fairly violently for a brief part of this.  
> Also the kitchen sex isn't too involved, mostly they just get off together so I changed the rating so people didn't get their hopes up/get turned off to this part of the story :) Let me know if that makes sense!

 

 

 **May 27 th  
** **13:00**

Driving away from Beacon Hills, Stiles tries not to think too hard about it. He should have known, really, that his life was going too smoothly lately. Things can only get too good before something sucky happens to balance it out.

He's heard it called the regression to the mean. Which he takes to mean: while he's had to live through the death of his mother and two best friends he also has an amazing relationship with his daughter and his fiancé.

Life for the three of them had not only been relatively problem free lately but they have actively been building a future and planning even more. So. He really should have known something was on the horizon to try to knock them back a few steps.

He just wasn't anticipating the new commanding officer of his old battalion to call and request his presence immediately. But here he is, driving to the base forty miles from his and Derek's house after leaving early from his shift at the bakery.

What he is resolutely _not_  thinking about is why his CO needs him.

There's only a handful of reasons why they'd need him specifically and they're not all entirely pleasant possibilities. 

He's immediately admitted to the base and escorted to the CO's headquarters. Nobody even questions the fact that Sadie was in the car with him and that she's coming in with him. He's done fairly well managing to keep his anxiety from building on the drive. While he was apprehensive of what kind of reaction being back on base would pull from him, he finds himself strangely relaxed as he falls in step with the corporals escorting him.

Even though it's been well over a year since he's donned a uniform he accepts and answers the salutes as he walks through the HQ building. The two corporals with him smoothly post themselves in front of the door to the CO's office and Stiles quickly raps on the door twice. 

"Enter," he hears from inside the office and opens the door. 

Stiles enters the office with Sadie close at his side and is relieved to find the office only occupied by the base commander and the man who summoned him. They're both standing behind the desk in discussion but they acknowledge him as soon as he's fully in the room. The corporal closes the door behind him and Stiles steps forward when the men come around from being the desk. He takes a moment to both be grateful for the absence of Lieutenant Colonel Morrell and Colonel Deucalion and cautious of the men he only vaguely recognizes. They both reach out a hand which he dutifully shakes as the base commander speaks. 

"Sergeant Stilinski, thank you for coming on such short notice. I'm Colonel Erickson, this is Major Lin." 

Stiles shakes his head with a smile and follows when they direct him to sit at the conference table situated opposite the desk. 

"I'm not a sergeant anymore. Just Stiles now, Colonel," he says, respectfully. He takes a moment to smooth a hand over Sadie's soft head when she sits pressed up against his legs after he takes his seat. 

"That's actually what we need to talk to you about," the colonel says and it takes a great effort for Stiles to not just shake his head and walk back out the door. Instead he looks back up and waits for them to get on with why he’s there.

"We know circumstances surrounding your discharge were...less than ideal."

Stiles barely restrains the scoff from leaving his throat. At least the man hesitated, like he knew his words wouldn’t encompass the disaster that was his last mission.

"And we're aware of the steps you've had to take to deal with previous assignments and missions and keeping yourself healthy," he adds pointedly looking at Sadie and Stiles finds himself petting her head automatically. 

"But we wouldn't be asking for this if you weren't needed, specifically."

And now Stiles is done with the easing into the subject. He's maintained his patient silence out of deference for his superior officers but now that they've made it clear they need him for something he just needs to know if it's what he's thinking they need. 

"Sir, respectfully, there's only one situation in which I would specifically be needed. Can we just get to the point here? “

Major Lin sighs and passes a file folder across the table to Stiles. And just like that Stiles knows what he’s going to find inside. Even before he opens the folder the Major confirms his fears.

“It’s Daehler.”

**March 3rd**

Stiles is smiling as he peels the label off his beer, the condensation making it come right off. He’s listening to Derek laugh in disbelief and allows himself to enjoy the moment. He’s sitting in the basement of their house with Derek on one side and his dog Sadie on the other.

They’ve just finished decorating the basement and currently they’re enjoying the overstuffed couch in the theater room. It’s the middle of Spring Break for both Emily and Derek and Emily has been spending the days with her grandpa. It gave Stiles and Derek a chance to get all the work done they needed to in the basement without worrying about her being underfoot and possibly getting hurt.

Derek, always the one to surprise Stiles, had decided it was time to ask about Stiles’ mission journal. Having given it to him at Christmas, Stiles had expected questions sooner than three months after the fact. But he can understand why Derek waited. Stiles started working at the bakery again in January as they had planned and everything has been going really well. It’s been weeks since he’s had even a nightmare. Let alone flashbacks and panic attacks which seem to be things of the past.

Stiles attributes it largely to having gone over nearly every mission he ever participated in with his therapist. Having Dr. Johnson listen to his side of the story for everything and how he felt about his actions is what was most helpful in allowing Stiles to put things behind him. So he’s not really worried about telling Derek about things or answering his questions.

But he’s kind of worried about it.

Stiles strongly suspects that Derek read the whole thing because so far he has picked questions and missions to talk about that Stiles has no issues or guilt with. So in general, it’s been pretty fun being able to recount stories of crazy plans and getting to brag about himself and his accomplishments a little. But he’s a little on edge as he waits for Derek to ask him a serious question.

“So how did that one end?” Derek asks bringing Stiles back to present.

“The Mexican drug lord? Well, in the end it was helicopter versus fighter jet so I bet you can guess which one blew up after chasing United States military personnel over United States’ airspace.”

Derek giggles and Stiles is _charmed_ by him. Clearly something is wrong with one of them. But he smiles softly at him and when Derek looks up at him he must read something on his face because he shifts back on the couch away from Stiles a little and his smile fades.

“What’s wrong?” he asks Stiles, brow pinched.

Stiles shakes his head a little and tries to smile and ease his worries.

“It’s nothing-“

“Stiles,” Derek cuts in, “don’t start hiding things now.”

Stiles sighs looking down at his hands.

“I just want you to ask the questions you want to ask, not the ones you think I want to answer.”

Derek’s face softens and gently tugs at Stiles’ sleeve until he can pull Stiles into his arms.

“I wanted answers to the questions I’ve asked so far because as someone with no experience in this kind of stuff? It all sounds just a little crazy and like I could watch them in an action movie. But if you want I’ll ask the question I’ve wanted to ask for a long time now, since even before you gave me the journal.”

Stiles nods and braces himself mentally for whatever Derek asks of him. Because like he just said, Stiles can’t start hiding things now. They’ve made too much progress and Stiles loves him far too much to try and protect him with a lie when the truth is mostly harmless.

“You wrote that you only have one thing that you truly regret and worry about leaving the way you did. I’m wondering what, if anything, you left unfinished that worries you even now?”

Stiles lets out the breath he’d been holding. That’s not a hard question, that isn’t even something that’s Stiles’ fault or responsibility. It’s just a situation that he regrets leaving like he did.

“I trained a spotter. He was decent as a sniper spotter but he wanted the glory of being the sniper himself. It was a ridiculous mentality because he was my equal in everything but assignment. His name was Matt Daehler. He was kind of a loner in the unit so my commander paired him up with me to try and give him someone to talk to or get close to.”

“Obviously I don’t know definitively why he wasn’t assigned as a sniper himself but it probably came down to his psych evaluation. We worked together on the few missions that used a whole team instead of me flying solo. It was evident by one of the last missions that something wasn’t right in his mind. He kind of, idolized me? And would get weirdly protective and possessive? So Matt is probably the biggest thing I worry about. I don’t know if he sorted himself out or if he’s completely crazy now or what and that bothers me.”

“Can you ask anyone about him? We never really talk about it but have you kept in contact with anyone from your old unit? I mean, I would understand if you didn’t after Scott but.”

He shrugs and trails off and Stiles can’t help but lean down and kiss him softly. How he was fortunate enough to be loved by such an intelligent, compassionate person is beyond Stiles’ understanding.

“I do talk to a couple of them. But he was transferred out of our unit towards the end so I wouldn’t even know who to ask.”

Derek nods and suggests that maybe Dr. Johnson could look into it if Stiles ever talked to him about it. After that Derek changes the conversation entirely and they end up talking about plans for the spring and summer activities for Emily.

 

 

**May 27 th **

**13:20**

“Corporal Matt Daehler was a problem two years ago. One that I made sure appropriate people knew about,” Stiles says angrily.

While Stiles may be considered to have a temper, he normally has a better rein on it than he does right now. But this- this _bullshit_ is a perfect example of the failings of the US military. He stands abruptly and points at the closed folder on the table, glaring at the officers across the table from him.

“I told you he needed to have his psych evaluation redone and you didn’t listen. I told you some kind of action, _any_ kind of action, needed to be taken to prevent anything from happening to him and his mental state.”

“Watch your tone, Sergeant,” the colonel warns. “He _was_ transferred out of your unit.”

“I haven’t said I’d come back and help you yet,” Stiles snaps deliberately. “And it wasn’t enough.”

“Measures were taken-“ Major Lin tries to interject.

“It wasn’t enough,” Stiles says raising his voice. “It was too little too late and another beautiful example of this unit’s remarkable leadership.”

“You might want to open the folder and see why you want to be temporarily reinstated, Sergeant Stilinski, before you piss me off any further and I rescind the offer and assign Greenburg to the case,” the colonel responds calmly.

Stiles’ stomach drops a little because if there’s more behind this than just his talent and his knowledge of Daehler there can only be one reason why he would want this assignment enough to be reinstated. However temporary it may prove to be. But instead of getting nervous or even a little anxious it seems his emotions are firmly on the side of anger. He can feel it growing in his gut, luckily, he knows exactly what will happen when he’s pushed too far. 

He looks down at the innocuous folder and braces himself as he flips it open.

It takes a moment to look through it all, there is a lot of evidence to sift through, but even after the first few pieces of paper Stiles knows they were right. He will be better equipped to handle this situation if he’s a reinstated sergeant instead of a civilian with a vendetta.

Because if Matt Daehler is going after Emily and Derek, there is no way in hell he won’t be the one to stop him. Not now that he’s got this cold, hard rage settling in his stomach and the knowledge that his feeling the previous week wasn’t for nothing.

He takes a deep breath and sits back down where Sadie promptly shoves her nose under his hand silently. He runs a quick hand across her head once again before he folds his hands on the table in front of him and stares at his new commanding officers.

“How long?” he asks first, giving them the chance to answer an easy truth to start with.

“It’s very recent-“

“Bullshit,” he interrupts ignoring the glare Colonel Erickson sends him. “This softball practice schedule is from a month ago, as is this work schedule of mine.”

Major Lin just sighs and leans back in his chair loosely while the Colonel remains straight backed and focused on Stiles’ insubordination no doubt.

“We’ve known about the situation for a while, yes. But he was stationed here and was receiving the appropriate medical and psychological treatment.”

For the first time in a long time Stiles feels completely in control of himself. He is keeping his anger controlled and calm even as it burns inside his chest. He may have issues still from his previous service, but right now, knowing his family and his future is under attack has him utterly focused. He can understand how the almost-panic attack the week previous was driven by the fear of the unknown.

Knowing, apparently, makes all the difference.

 

**May 15th**

Stiles would have to admit that he’s a little excited. He’s not as excited as say, Derek, about the fact that they’re pulling in to the parking lot for Emily’s first softball game ever. Stiles is riding shotgun, literally and figuratively both, for the day. But he’s understandably okay with this being a Derek and Emily thing.

He loves baseball and will no doubt love getting to help teach his daughter to love the game as well. But Derek is the one who played in high school and even played in college while in New York. To say it’s a passion of his would be entirely and completely accurate. Once Stiles knew he wasn’t a Yankees fan everything baseball related just was accepted after that.

Emily is looking a little nervous but Stiles knows she’s excited underneath. Derek gets them a parking space in a good place where they will hopefully not have to worry about any stray balls smashing their windshield. He laughs a little when Derek and Emily practically jump from the car to start walking towards the field for warmups. Stiles gets himself out of the car a little slower and walks around to the hatchback of his suburban to let Sadie out of the car. He clips on the leash and sighs, bracing himself.

It’s been a weird 24 hours. Stiles doesn’t know if it was something he got from his dad through pure exposure being a cop’s kid, if it’s genetic or if he learned it to avoid bullies but he has always known when someone is watching him. His army training and sniper training of course only enhanced this seemingly natural ability. He’s never really noticed it when he’s stateside. Or well, he should say, stateside on leave.

So it was a shock to leave work yesterday and have the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he walked to his car. He hadn’t turned as much as he wanted to. Instead he got into his car and drove to the store to pick up something, anything, but the trip allowed him to look around and try to see something. Of course, he saw nothing. But the feeling unnerved him and all through the evening with Emily he couldn’t shake it.

Last night he made sure he checked all the windows and all the curtains making sure everything was shut tight. If someone was watching him all they’d have seen though was his weekly routine bumped up a day. Predictably, he didn’t sleep well. And when he woke up next to Derek he had the feeling he was being watched yet again. Sadie helped him avoid any real anxiety from forming while they got ready for the game but he still feels off balance.

The drive over hadn’t been anything particularly stressful but as he watches Derek and Emily walk across the parking lot something tightens in his chest and he can hear Sadie whining at him. Stiles doesn’t think he’s going to go into a full blown panic attack but he is not steady or composed enough for his daughter to see him. Derek doesn’t notice him not following and he’s already on the field helping Emily get her little cleats on and her bag in the dugout.

Stiles unclips Sadie’s leash and sinks into a crouch, leaning against the side of the car out of sight. He knows that by now Emily has her friend Katie and they’re playing catch to warm up. Derek’s probably wondering where he is now and Sadie gives one last distressed whine before she leans in and licks his face once and takes off across the lot towards Derek. He very carefully keeps his breathing steady and doesn’t truly panic he doesn’t think but as he stares at his hands he realizes they’re shaking.

Damn it.

Sadie barks once and then he can hear her running back across the asphalt towards him and hears Derek’s quick jog following behind her. He’s still trying to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong when Derek is there on his knees in front of him and Sadie is pressed into his side. He reaches one arm to wrap around Sadie and lifts the other towards Derek which he grabs firmly.

“Stiles?”

He asks before he uses his free hand to brush back Stiles hair from his face and get him to look up.

“Babe?” And he must read something on Stiles’ face because his next question is, “Do you know what’s wrong?”

Stiles shakes his head lightly still trying to keep his breathing regulated. He closes his eyes to try and think. It sounds dumb to his brain and he has half a second of not wanting to admit to what he’s thinking and just push through alone. But. He doesn’t have to be alone. Derek is right here ready and willing to help. He sighs and looks back up at his fiancé briefly overwhelmed with the look of concern and affection Derek is giving him.

“I can’t- I can’t sit on the bleachers. The- having my back exposed like that. I can’t,” he blows out a breath before he can work himself up. “I can’t sit there, it’s a vulnerable position. I just- I.”

“Hey,” Derek stops him. “That’s fine. Do you want to go home? Even just for a little bit until you’re comfortable?”

Stiles shakes his head. He is not going to let his paranoia make him miss out on his baby’s first softball game ever.

“Okay.” Derek pauses, thinking. “Okay,” he says like he’s found a solution. “You just get to be the dad who paces today. Normally I’m the one walking up and down the baseline fence but you are going to keep Sadie at your side and you can pace and take breaks at the car and if you feel at any time overwhelmed or uncomfortable you’re going to go home.”

Stiles nods in agreement because that, that he can do. Derek helps him stand, kisses him sweetly and leaves him to walk over at his own pace. It will always amaze him how lucky he got with Derek. He shakes his head trying to clear the residual anxiety and leans down to re-clasp Sadie’s leash. He pauses for a moment, considering, before he opens the back door and pulls out her service dog vest.

It’s been a while since he needed her sole attention to be on him, keeping him calm, but he doesn’t want to risk it. It isn’t a big deal if people do pet her but he doesn’t want to deal with it today.

By the time he gets over to the field he feels marginally better. He takes another few deep breaths and when Emily looks at him from her spot at shortstop he’s able to send her a completely genuine smile. The game goes about as well as a softball game can go when it’s the 8 & Under league. He does have to keep moving but it’s easy to disguise as being a passionate father pacing along the third-base fence. Sadie sticks with him and by the time they get to the bottom of the third inning Stiles goes and sits on the first level of the bleachers. Derek is at his back and since he’s on the very end Sadie can sit next to him facing away from the game.

After the game they have to go out for celebratory ice cream. Stiles gets a smoothie so he doesn’t get wired on the sugar like he normally would. When they get home he makes sure the windows and doors are all locked while Derek helps Emily wipe her glove and cleats clean. By the time he hears his daughter start the shower in the bathroom he’s already collapsed on his and Derek’s bed falling asleep. He writes a reminder to make an appointment with Dr. Johnson on the pad of post it notes on his nightstand before he drifts off.

He wakes up with his face pressed into Derek’s hip and an arm thrown over his legs. There’s a hand carding through his hair and Stiles shifts his head up a little and opens his eyes slowly realizing Derek was probably just sitting next to him on the bed reading and Stiles had still wrapped himself around him in his sleep.

“Feeling okay?” he asks quietly and stills his hand in Stiles’ hair.

Stiles takes a moment to actually think about his answer before he can spout, ‘I’m fine.’ He knows Derek appreciates the truth, deserves the truth. Stiles knows firsthand how useless hiding things and feelings can be in their relationship. So he gives himself a minute to decide if he’s okay or not. His panic is gone. His anxiety is mostly gone. The headache he’d given himself isn’t there anymore. It’s hard to believe it’s only been 24 hours since he first got the feeling he was being watched because it’s felt like a week. But as he lays in his home with his fiancé and his daughter in the next room he feels safe again.

He doesn’t feel…hunted.

So he nods at Derek’s question.

“I’m okay, yeah. Better, at the very least.”

Derek sighs probably in relief and asks, “Do you really think you need to see Dr. Johnson?”

Stiles nods again, “Yeah. I- after work yesterday I felt like I was being watched. I need to tell him about it and ask him some questions.”

Derek resumes petting at his head and relaxes against the headboard again.

“Okay. Whatever you need you do, okay?”

Stiles sighs and snuggles in closer. He is completely in love with a wonderful person and would do practically anything to keep from losing Derek.

**May 27 th**

**13:45**

“So, lets overlook why this is happening,” Stiles allows after listening to the two officers explain Daehler’s downward spiral and his escape twelve hours ago, “and move on to what you want the solution to be.”

“Catch and Detain is preferred over a death. As always. But we’ll allow the use of deadly force if the situation calls for it.”

So basically, they want him alive if Stiles can manage it. He knows a lot of people would assume that Stiles wants Matt Daehler dead and completely incapable of harming his family. But Stiles only ever wanted the guy to get some help. He thought if it had been addressed sooner, maybe therapy could have helped him. Even now, for as angry and protective as he is in the moment, he doesn’t want to take Matt’s life unless the situation becomes dire.

“Unfortunately, your old squad has been redeployed but we have a squad of men here who have almost as much experience. They’ve been together for a while now and they work well together,” Colonel Erickson explains sincerely and hands Stiles a dossier on the team.

He flips through the personnel files and a few of the names start to look familiar.

“Was this team in Kandahar, say, three years ago?”

The major looks taken aback as he nods.

“We were there too,” Stiles explains, “This team though, while we had different missions, they were at the same base with us for over a month. Good guys. They ready to go?”

“Just waiting for orders.”

Stiles nods, a plan already forming as he looks through the information he’s been given.

“How long will the reinstatement take?”

The Colonel smirks and pulls out the final file folder and opens it.

“Just needs a signature. You’ll be temporarily reinstated pending the completion of this mission.”

Stiles nods his agreement, accepts the pen, and signs the form. He already has a mental list going through his head of things he needs and what he’s going to say to the men in the unit. After he signs and hands it back officially reinstating him as an Army Ranger he thinks he should feel anxiety or regret or something bad, but he actually feels something akin to relief.  He decides not to read too much into it just yet and puts his mind back on the task at hand.

The major takes over then, leading Stiles out of the CO’s office and towards another conference room. The corporals, that Stiles recognizes now as a part of his newly assigned unit, follow behind. The conference room he’s shown to has his uniform, renewed ID card, and the forms for what he needs to requisition for the mission.

He’s looking over the form as he pulls the uniform towards himself.

“Corporal…” he turns around to read the man’s name off his uniform, “Kukowski?”

Stiles smirks.

“Does the rest of the unit have their arms and ammunition?”

“Yes, sir. They’re all waiting in the barracks.”

“Perfect, could you assemble them to this room in, ten minutes, so, 14:00 hours?”

“Yes, sir,” Kukowski acknowledges the order, salutes and leaves the room.

Stiles turns to the major and outlines exactly what he needs. A fast car from the motor pool, his rifle, his Beretta, extra magazines, a communication line ear piece, mobile medic packs, and body armor is promised to be ready and waiting by no later than fourteen hundred hours. With that done he moves to find the nearest bathroom to change and hopefully call Derek quick before he meets his temporary new squad and they all make the drive back to Beacon Hills.

**March 4 th **

Stiles is again enjoying his and Derek's efforts at giving their house more value by finishing off the basement. The couch they bought and the space they made down in the basement is actually quite relaxing and Stiles is reading a book and enjoying the time of quiet while his daughter and Derek are both out of the house.

He gets lost in his book for a few hours before he hears a door close upstairs and heavy footfalls he instinctively knows are Derek's walk across the kitchen towards the stairwell. He puts his bookmark in to save his place and smiles up at Derek when he walks in the room. His smile fades a little, though, when he sees the journal in Derek's hand again.

"I have another question."

Derek states bluntly but not unkindly. Stiles rolls his eyes at him good-naturedly.

"Hi, honey. So glad you're home. How was your day running errands?"

Derek flops down on the couch next to Stiles and leans over to kiss his cheek chastely.

"Hello dear, I had a wonderful day running all over town. But my only thoughts were getting home to you, my darling."

“Wow,” Stiles laughs and tosses his book on the coffee table before he wraps his arms around Derek’s shoulders from the side. “Darling? I just wanted a hello.”

“Sorry,” Derek smiles and shifts so he’s laying on his back, head in Stiles’ lap.

Stiles starts to card his fingers through Derek’s hair and lets the other hand just rest on Derek’s chest.

"So,” Derek starts again. “My question. Knowing how much work you've put in to dealing with and getting through your PTSD-“

"Don't sell yourself short, you helped. And Emily and my dad. Your patience and help wasn’t nothing,” Stiles interrupts and Derek rolls his eyes fondly.

“Fine, so it was a group effort-“

"I hear it takes a village,” Stiles cuts in with a smiles until Derek fixes him with a look, at which Stiles mimes zipping his lips shut.

"It does yes,” Derek huffs and then pauses before he continues, more serious than before.

“With exception to yesterday we don't talk about it all very much. So I guess I'm wondering, because I don't know what's normal, but will the Army ever need you to do anything ever again? Like, do they have the power to come back and say we need you, you're back in the army? Or we want you to come teach or be a speaker or accept an award? Is any of that a possibility? And I'm wondering, if faced with your old unit or being back on a base how do you think that would go?”

Huh, that’s. Well, that’s actually a pretty legitimate concern.

"I haven't really thought...” He stops and shakes his head at himself. “No. No that's not true. Yes, there will probably be a time where I have to go to an army base, or see someone from my old unit. But, I don’t think they have the power to just up and say, you’re back in the army.”

Stiles pauses, hand stilling in Derek’s hair, trying to find the best words to describe what he thinks would happen if faced with that kind of situation.

“I've thought about it a little,” he admits slowly. “And while it could be stressful to be in that environment again or to see those people I don't think I'll have any kind of violent reaction or breakdown. I think...

Derek just gives him an encouraging look when Stiles looks down at him. Stiles resumes his ministrations playing with Derek’s hair the movement somehow keeping him calm.

"I think most people would assume that Scott's death would give me a good deal of closure but...I don't think it did,” he confesses.

"I'm not sure what you mean,” Derek says quietly with a confused expression.

Stiles just sighs and again has to think about what words will best explain how he feels about the whole thing.

"I mean I can imagine people close to me have been thinking that such an awful event would be a way to completely turn away from that part of my life and make walking away from the army easier in a sense. But for all its flaws and for the failed missions and traumatizing experiences, that stuff only made up like 20% of my time in the Army. Which yeah, is still a lot of bad stuff, but.”

“I saved people, I caught the bad guys without needing to kill them, I made friends and had fights. I learned how to be a friend and a leader. I learned what it's like to be a role model and how to live up to that. I guess, after talking it all out with Dr. Johnson, what I’m starting to understand is that for me Scott's death really wasn’t the closure I wanted because being a sergeant in the army rangers wasn't always a bad thing.”

Stiles shakes his head a little and Derek reaches up and tangles their fingers together on his chest. 

“I don't- don't know how else to really explain it. Because I'm glad I'm done. I'm glad I'm home and that I get to be here with Emily and my dad and you. And I’m glad we’re moving forward and building a future together. But with Scott and my discharge, it all happened so fast. Dr. Johnson and I talked about how my brain probably didn't realize that this time it wasn't just a prolonged leave and that I'd soon be back in a war zone and not home stateside for good.”

Derek sits up and shifts around until he’s sitting between Stiles legs and is upright enough to wrap his arms around Stiles in a hug.

“He thinks that was part of the reason I had such vivid nightmares right away and the flashbacks. Because I didn’t really have the closure I needed at the end there.”

Stiles doesn’t know how to explain it any more than that, but Derek doesn’t push for more. He just holds Stiles tighter before he turns his head into Stiles’ neck and presses kisses there. The small gentle kisses move across Stiles’ neck until Derek pulls back and kisses him on the gently. Derek pulls back with a sad smile.

“I’m sorry that all this happened to you.” Another kiss. “But I’m proud of you and all that you’ve done to get better. Thanks for trusting me with this,” he says quietly.

Stiles tries to smile at that, knowing Derek means every word of what he’s saying.

“I love you,” Derek says on a sigh and wraps Stiles back in a hug for a long moment before he moves them again.

They end up completely horizontal on the couch with Derek lying flat on his back with Stiles lying on top of him, his head resting on Derek’s chest. Their legs tangle together and Stiles just basks in the feeling of safety and comfort as he enjoys Derek’s embrace. Talking about this stuff the last couple days has just been draining where Stiles was concerned it would make him anxious.

He’s glad, though, that it has just left him tired. Since all this started Stiles has never once talked about his conversations with Dr. Johnson. It just made sense at the time and became habit to leave those thoughts and conversations in the doctor’s office. Now, it seems that talking about Dr. Johnson’s sessions and having to talk about Scott has zapped what little energy he had. Luckily, Derek seems to have picked up on the fact that Stiles currently needs a nap.

In that quiet moment before he falls asleep Stiles lets himself appreciate the effort he’s put in to moving forward. He’s engaged, his daughter is happy, and he and Derek are planning a future together. Things aren’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but for the moment, Stiles is cautiously happy.

 

**May 27 th **

**14:05**

Derek’s never been in a car accident. He’s managed thirty years without experiencing one and he figures if this guy hadn’t purposefully swerved into his Toyota he probably would have gone for a long time without being a part of one. It’s not fun at all. His head is throbbing, his ears are ringing, there’s glass everywhere and his daughter is whimpering in the back seat.

But before he can even gather himself together long enough to turn around and check on her his door flies open and the only thing he sees is the gun pointed at him. Well. He might have an idea of why Stiles had to rush off to get an assignment on base.

"Call him."

Derek wants to protest. His brain may still be a little rattled but if this guy is who Derek thinks he is, Derek doesn't want to cave to this guy's demands. But right now he has a gun pointed in his face and their daughter in the backseat watching and he's not going to risk it. He raises shaky hands slowly showing he's unarmed. 

"My phone is on the passenger seat."

The guy gestures to the other side of the car with the gun and Derek takes that as permission granted. He moves smoothly and slowly and reaches for his cell phone. He grabs it and since he doesn't have a bullet in the back turns back to face front and opens the screen to show the guy that he's actually calling Stiles and not anyone else. He just has a feeling that any attempts at subterfuge would end up with him getting shot. And given he just survived a car accident with minimal injury, he'd really like to avoid dying via gunshot wounds at all costs. He puts it on speaker phone and they listen to it ring a couple times before Stiles picks up.

"Derek, I-"

"Sergeant Stilinski. This is-"

"Daehler.” Stiles says harshly.

Derek can’t even see his face but just from the tone Stiles is _pissed._

“I know. What the fuck have you done?" 

"Nothing yet."

"Somehow I don't believe that."

Derek watches a downright frightening smile spread across the man's face.

"You always were the brains of the outfit." 

"Why are you doing this, Matt? What did Derek ever do to you?"

Through the phone Derek can hear the forced calm in Stiles’ voice now, like he’s trying to talk his way out of the whole situation from forty miles away. 

"Oh Derek hasn't done anything. But don't you get it? Derek is your future. And since you stole mine from me I thought I'd return the favor." 

Stiles doesn't get a chance to respond before Matt reaches out and ends the call. He looks terribly happy with himself and dread is starting to firmly settle in Derek's gut. 

"Out of the car. You too, Miss Emily."

Derek steps out quicker than he thought he’d be able to but he gets out smoothly and stands solidly in front of Emily's door. 

"No. No way in hell. You can take me and do whatever you want, but you are not taking Emily." 

He's actually pretty proud of himself that his voice doesn't wobble in the slightest. Even about the part that he can do 'whatever he wants.' Because he has no idea what this guy has planned but he knows that Emily is not going to be part of it. Matt looks surprised at Derek making demands but before he gets more than a step forward to no doubt threaten him they hear the sound of approaching sirens.

Either Matt didn't account for anyone calling the cops or he just thought their reaction time would be slower. He must make his choice in that moment not to waste any more time and lowers the weapon to grab Derek. He uses his grip on Derek's bicep to steer him towards his car that suffered superficial damage in the crash and shoves him in the backseat.

It's only after Matt gets in behind the wheel and they're driving away that he looks at Derek in the rear view mirror.

"If you try and jump out or harm me in anyway during this drive I will turn around and go back and put a bullet in that pretty little girl's head." 

Derek freezes and sits back in his seat. Any thoughts of trying to overpower Matt while he drives leaves his mind and he only starts thinking about how he's going to keep himself alive.

*

Emily sits frozen in the back seat of Derek's car. Before she can panic or freak out she tries to figure out what she's supposed to do. The man with the gun is gone but so is Derek. And Dad isn't even in town he had to drive to the base. Is this what the meeting was about? She wants to look out the window but when she turns her head it hurts her neck and she sits still.

Moments later, before she's even partially done processing what's just happened, two police cruisers screech to a stop next to Derek's car and she breaks out of her stupor and moves. She gets her seat belt undone and gets the door open just as Deputy Parrish gets out of one of the cars. As she crawls out of the SUV she stumbles a little but Parrish is there and picks her up holding her close. 

"He, he took Derek. And dad isn't here and- and," she stutters to a stop and starts crying. She can hear Parrish trying to soothe her but it doesn't help and it doesn't matter because Derek is gone and what if he gets hurt.

She lets Parrish hold her as he gets them right back into his cruiser with his partner and tries to stop outright sobbing. She may not have panic attacks like her dad but that doesn’t mean she isn’t panicking right now since she’s so confused and worried and scared about what’s going on. She hears Jordan say they’re taking her to the hospital and that Grandpa will meet them there and she’s able to calm down.

She’s by no means completely calm but knowing Grandpa is okay and Jordan’s hand rubbing her back makes it easier to breathe and stop crying even for just a few minutes until they get to the hospital. If Daddy can be brave fighting the bad guys, she can be brave until she knows he’s safe.

*

Stiles was still standing in the bathroom where he was adjusting to his new uniform when Derek called. But as he slips his phone back in his pocket, having been hung up on by Daehler, he starts moving. He’s gets back to the conference room, mind whirling, and his momentum slams the door open. It was unintentional but it gains him the attention of the almost dozen men already waiting for him there.

“I'm not here to make friends. I'm not here to be you're new squad leader. I'm not here to change anything about how you guys work."

He takes a breath and holds his phone up for emphasis.

"I'm here because I just got off the phone with former Sergeant Matt Daehler who has taken my 8 year old daughter and my fiancé hostage. I'm here because I need you guys to have my back while I try and get them back."

He slips the phone back into his pocket and steps up to the table squaring your shoulders. He knows it makes him look taller and bigger than he really is, but it’s a tactic that has always worked to give him a commanding presence.

"So I'm not going to tell you about my six years in combat, five of which I was a sergeant leading my unit with the late Sergeant Scott McCall. I won't tell you about our over 200 successful missions. And I definitely won't tell you how I led that unit. I'm not going to tell you how to run this op; I'm just going to trust that you guys know what the hell you're doing together while I go and get my family back."

He leans over the table to open the case with his comm ear piece and gets the bud turned on and in his ear.

"Time is of the essence, gentlemen. We're on comm channel 3. Keep the comm line open so I can I tell you where in Beacon Hills to report to."

He looks around, pleased to find based on the men’s expressions that he can still pull off a rousing speech under pressure, he knocks his knuckles on the table once, pushes away from it and smirks.

"Rangers lead the way," he says with every bit of conviction he's ever had in his brothers in arms.

He hears a chorus of “hooah” ring out in the room and despite the circumstances it brings a small smile to his face as he nods before turning and leading them out the door.

**April 18 th **

Getting off work has recently become Stiles’ favorite time of day. Mainly, it’s because when he is done he gets to go watch Emily practice softball. When they sat down to discuss what she wanted to do this summer, softball was first on the list. Painting and swimming were second, but they don’t start for her age group until later in the summer. So softball was unanimously approved by the three of them and it’s been exactly three days of practice.

He and Derek are definitely becoming the obnoxious parents who sit in the stands for practice. The girls are just so cute on the field and the practices aren’t really that intense that Stiles’ and Derek’s cheering really interrupts anything. Well, the older kids who practice on the field next to them might find it annoying. Stiles really doesn’t care though. So he didn’t buy and slice an extra bag of oranges so both teams had an after practice snack yesterday. He didn’t.

Regardless, because he ended up with a later shift at the bakery today, he doesn’t make it to the practice fields until well into the practice time. All four fields are full of kids and Stiles is suddenly glad his baby is only eight years old and not sixteen. Because that fastpitch team is scary, holy buckets. He makes his way past the real, intense practices to the scorching hot bleachers and to his dedicated fiancé as he tries to find Emily on the field.

Derek kisses him briefly before his focus is back on the field. Stiles would be offended if he didn’t look at the field, following Derek’s gaze, and find his baby on the pitcher’s mound. His internal squee is almost vocalized right then and there. Emily is pitching and she is _killing_ it. His hand finds Derek’s thigh; he needs something to reassure him that what he’s watching is real. He watches her pitch a few more times (a ball, a strike, a strike, a ball that was _clearly_ a strike, and another few balls after that) before Derek gets his attention.

“Babe,” Stiles turns to look at him and Derek looks a little pained. “You need to do two things, breathe and let go of my leg.”

Stiles sucks in a breath and when did he stop breathing? But then he looks down and his hand is giving Derek’s leg a death grip unbeknownst to his brain. He immediately releases his grip and smooths his hand over the spot. He gives Derek his best puppy dog eyes and kisses him slowly and softly.

“Sorry,” he murmurs and Derek gives him a small smile.

They’re about to lean in for another one when they hear Emily’s voice yelling from the field.

“DADS. YOU’RE BREAKING RULE NINE.”

“SORRY,” he turns and yells back with a smile. “WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN.”

The crowd around the fields looks between them and laughs lightly, but Stiles can hear Emily’s giggle so he knows she’s not really upset with him.

“Did she just-“

“What’s rule nine?” Derek interrupts.

“Oh, rule nine is no PDA. Are we really going to ignore the way that she literally yelled out the word ‘dads’?”

Derek looks uncomfortable and for the life of him Stiles doesn’t know why. They’re engaged. They are going to spend a long time together and Emily is part of that. Does Derek really not think he’s one of Emily’s parents? Because he is. He so is. Him and Derek are partners in crime! The dynamic duo! They’re like Batman and Robin. Or Dean and Castiel. Or Capitan America and Bucky Barnes. But their relationship doesn’t have as much homoerotic subtext but if you rearrange the letters you get…you know. He’s not going to finish that.

Back to the point. Does Derek think he isn’t Emily’s dad? Does he not want to be? These are the important thoughts that flash through his mind while his future hubby gets up and walks down the bleachers towards the field where the girls are all congregating around their bags. So apparently they’re ignoring it.

He walks down the stairs to the grass and makes his way to the end of the baseline fence to get at his daughter. She’s positively beaming at him and wriggling in excitement as she practically skips over to them. She’s already handing Derek her bag, which he automatically takes because he’s a sweetheart, and then she jumps into Stiles’ arms. He takes the barest moment to be grateful that his daughter still gives him this. This easy affection and that she lets him hug her and hold her tight still. They might not be the Stiles and Emily show anymore but they’ve still got their things that only they do.

“Did you see me? They taught me to pitch! I might even get to do it in the game if I’m good enough.”

“I’m so proud of you,” he says matching her smile. It hurts his face he smiles so wide but he’s stupidly happy right now so it’s okay. “You were great,” he tells her.

But before he can put her back on her feet they hear a shouting match starting from the dugout behind them. It’s not their team, it’s the eighteen and under team so it’s unsurprising that they turn around and find a dad yelling at what is probably his seventeen year old daughter. They’re both on the field halfway between the pitcher’s mound and home plate arguing loudly and viciously enough that they’ve drawn a crowd.

It takes Stiles a moment to figure out who it is but he’s disappointed when he does. Being the sheriff’s kid combined with living in a small town almost his entire life means Stiles knows far too many people that live in Beacon Hills. The man currently bringing his daughter to tears in front of her teammates and coach is a one attorney at law Mr. Matthew Tate. He’s got a temper and a mean streak a mile wide and why he was allowed to reproduce is beyond Stiles’ understanding.

Nobody in the crowd looks willing to do anything. But before he can move to put Emily down and try to intervene, Derek starts walking forward. Only to immediately be snagged by his shirt when Emily reaches out a quick hand to stop him.

“No, dad. Don’t go over there.”

Derek stops dead and looks back at her like she just told him ice cream was gross. Or puppies were evil. Or like she said she wanted Brussel sprouts with dinner. Point is he’s shocked and Stiles has to suppress a snort. He hands his daughter right to Derek’s waiting arms and kisses his cheek quickly.

“Yeah, dad. Let the one trained in hand to hand combat handle the guy. He looks like if anyone touches him he’ll start throwing punches. I, for one, know how to dodge.”

Emily nods along with his words and hides her face in Derek’s neck. Derek, for his part, still seems rather shocked so Stiles gives him what he hopes is a reassuring smile and turns back to the field. Mr. Tate’s daughter (Malia?) has thrown her glove in the dirt and they’re both flailing their hands around as they continue to argue. Stiles slips through the gap in the fence and strides quickly across the hard packed dirt. The daughter sees him approach and looks relieved which only further strengthens Stiles’ resolve that he needs to intervene.

“Excuse me-“

“Butt out,” Tate snaps, hardly glancing over at Stiles.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Stiles says just to be a brat but then, when the dad goes to grab at his daughter, Stiles reaches out and grabs his shoulder.

As predicted, Tate swings at him, wildly and easily dodged. The second swing has Stiles grabbing the man’s arm and twisting while simultaneously sweeping his feet out from under him. In one smooth movement Stiles has Tate on the ground, arm twisted hard behind his back and a hand firmly on his neck keeping him pinned.

“Get off me!” he yells, further enraged, and little puffs of dust blow across the ground as he huffs where Stiles has him pinned in the dirt.

“No,” Stiles says calmly and looks up at the daughter.

She’s staring at him with something close to awe and Stiles wonders when the last time was that someone stood up to her dad. He softens his features as much as possible and smiles at her gently.

“Malia, right?”

She nods.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“I, um, went shopping with some school friends instead of going to pitching practice.”

“Ah huh,” Stiles responds. He’s willing to bet he knows what’s happening right now. He saw it in the army, people joining up because of their parents. Not doing it for their own reasons but just to get their parents and the idea of ‘legacy’ off their backs. Military service isn’t the only thing that people do to please their parents though.

“Quick question. Is softball for you or for your dad?”

She looks positively smug that she gets to answer that question in front of her dad like this.

“Softball in general? It’s alright, I like it. I like the team. Pitching and late night practices and off season training and year round conditioning practices? Not so much. Dad wanted me to play, I played. He wanted me to pitch, I pitched. He wants me on the Olympic softball team by the time I graduate high school and I couldn’t care less.”

“Sounds positively reasonable to me, but I am not your parent.” He looks down at a still wriggling Mr. Tate. “Now, Mr. Tate, I know from my time spent with my dad, the sheriff you know, that you, good sir, have a bit of a temper. As evidenced by the fact that I have you pinned to a softball diamond.”

“It’s none of your business how I handle my daughter.”

“You’re right, it isn’t. Except that you made it everyone’s business when you started yelling loud enough for everyone to hear. You made it _my_ business when you scared my daughter. Now, I would hate to have to call in Officer Larson down at the station and have her fill in a report about this, wouldn’t you?”

Malia looks at him confused but Tate goes completely still. Officer Sara Larson is the head of the county’s child abuse squad. She’s also Tate’s ex-wife’s sister. But as a lawyer who works closely with police, Tate knows exactly what she does. Stiles made a legitimate threat and yet kept it vague enough that the people watching wouldn’t know anything beyond ‘police officer would be called’.

He leans down and says more quietly, “Emotional abuse is still abuse, Mr. Tate.”

With that parting quip Stiles eases his grip on Tate’s neck and arm slowly and stands up. He backs away to stand next to Malia while Tate gets himself up off the ground.

“Everybody okay now?” he asks, looking between the two.

Malia looks pleased as punch that her dad has been taken down a notch and Tate looks appropriately chastised. But they both nod at him and he nods back and then walks away. The crowd that had gathered at the fence has mostly dissipated, which Stiles is glad for. He slithers through the fence again and finds Derek and Emily exactly how he left them.

They’re both staring at him in what Stiles would like to call wonderment but Stiles just shrugs. He gets Derek to start walking with a hand on the small of his back guiding him back to the car. Nobody says anything until they’ve driven all the way home and parked in the driveway. Emily finally breaks the silence then as they get out of the car. But instead of talking about what happened at the field she talks about school.

It’s totally fine. So fine, except Derek’s being weird and like, avoiding eye contact as he cooks dinner. Which is different and Stiles thinks he’s imagining things but then it continues into supper at the table where it’s just painfully obvious that he’s upset and doesn’t want to even risk eye contact. Because that would be communicating that he’s upset by something. Because not even looking at Stiles for an entire meal is a completely subtle alternative. Stiles has had enough and by the time they’re all done eating he stands up quickly enough that they both look at him in mild surprise.

“Okay, I think we need to talk about softball practice. Now. In the living room.”

They both stare at him and stay exactly where they are. He doesn’t want to talk like this with a table in between them he wants to talk on the couch, sitting next to each other where Derek can’t hide or run away quite as easy. 

“I am not kidding! Leave the plates, we’re talking this stuff out. As a family. Let’s go. Stand up, there ya go. Into the living room.” 

Emily huffs to the living room, no doubt bemoaning her father’s antics. Derek still looks hesitant and unsure and it’s starting to do more than sting inside Stiles’ chest. Just the uncertainty of why Derek’s reacting the way he is, is really starting to hurt.

But Stiles gets them sat down on the couch with Derek on one end and Emily on the other. Stiles rolls his eyes and sits down right next to Derek, all pressed up against his side and drags Emily over the couch to them. She’s almost getting too big to hold anymore but Stiles just sits her sideways across their laps with her feet on Derek’s legs.

“Okay, family. What’s going on? Emily, great job today giving pitching a try.”

He gives her a high five and she just giggles at him. It’s probably his favorite sound ever but that’s not what this moment is about.

“You were amazing.”

He doesn’t pause in the slightest but just rolls right through to the next part, the more important part.

“And you called Derek ‘dad’.”

She looks a little confused suddenly and looks back and forth between them a couple times. Probably just as confused as Stiles with Derek at the moment.

“Was I not supposed to?”

“I think we’re more wondering where it came from? Since you’ve always called him Derek until now.”

Derek is still keeping a mostly blank face but Stiles keeps Emily’s focus on him while she explains. He doesn’t think Derek want’s to appear indifferent in this conversation but that’s the face he’s pulling.

“Katie has two moms. One is her real mom but she calls them both ‘mom’.” She shrugs. “I figured the same applies with you. You’re my dad. But you’re marrying Derek eventually so that makes him my dad too. Right?”

They both startle when Derek lets out a loud, honking _sob_.

“Oh god,” he groans and covers his face with his hands. Stiles turns to face him, trying to get a better read on just what’s going through his mind.

“No, no,” he says softly as he reaches for Derek’s hands. “Don’t feel like you need to hide. What’s going through your mind big guy?”

Derek just shakes his head and lets Stiles pull his hands away to reveal tear filled eyes and the weakest little smile.

“Just- give me a second,” he croaks. But then he smiles a little bigger even as more tears fall from his eyes. “I’m happy, I swear I’m happy,” he laughs.

Stiles just shifts Emily on their laps so she’s sitting on Derek’s lap and Stiles can put his arms around both of them. Derek sighs and rests his head on Stiles’ shoulder for a moment before he seems to pull himself together a little and starts explaining, voice coming out a bit more steady now.

“For a few years of my life I had become resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to have my own kids. And that was fine, honestly, I thought it was, because I still got to teach my kids at school and that was enough. Then I met you, I met you _both,_ and I suddenly got to be a part of your lives. But.”

He looks at Stiles so earnestly he feels a twinge in his chest as it tightens because he suddenly thinks this is deeper than what Stiles was anticipating.

“You guys have such an amazing, strong relationship. I just couldn’t imagine. I mean, who would need another dad when they have the best one in the world already.”

Derek’s eyes fill with tears again and Stiles feels his own start to sting as he holds back.

“Don’t-“ he croaks out. “Don’t make me cry Derek Hale. Because if I cry then she’ll cry,” he says pointing at Emily who just rolls her eyes at him. “And then with my luck my dad will walk in and think someone died so don’t do it.”

Stiles has more to say. He really does. He wants to tell Derek about how great a parent he is. He wants to explain everything he does and contributes to this family. But before he can get another word out Emily smacks a hand over his mouth. He looks at her with eyes wide and confused.

“I won’t argue that dad is pretty great,” she starts, talking to Derek and Stiles can’t help but lift his eyebrows and shrug as if he’s saying, eh, it’s true in Derek’s direction. They ignore him.

“But I’m pretty sure I get to choose who I want to be my dad. You love me right?”

Derek smiles and nods before he reaches out and tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“I love you, so much.”

She nods like she already knew that, which, she probably did, before she continues.

“And you love dad.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, peeking over at Stiles to say, “kind of a lot,” before he’s back looking at Emily.

“That’s all I need. You’re both my dad’s. The dad that made me,” she says hooking a thumb at Stiles, “and the dad that chose me.”

She points at Derek then and Stiles loses it for a second, letting out a loud sob much like Derek did earlier.

“Dammit,” he curses under his breath and swipes at the tears on his cheeks.

Derek finally gets with the program and they soon end up all hugging each other for a long moment while the adults get their shit together. Stiles pulls back after a few minutes and smiles at both of them.

“I love you,” he tells them both and kisses Emily’s forehead and Derek’s lips. “We are the best family ever.”

They spend the rest of the evening all together. Emily showers while Stiles and Derek wash the tears off their faces, change into their pajamas and make out for a while before Emily comes back ready to watch movies. Stiles sits in the middle of the couch this time with Derek laid out on one side, Emily curled up on the other and Sadie on the floor in front of him.

He’d have to admit he is perfectly happy exactly as he is. Not that one day he won’t be ready to expand his family somehow, and they’re still moving forward with buying a bigger house, but at least for now, his little family is pretty damn great.

**May 27th  
**

**14:20**

Stiles isn’t even out of the parking lot with his new squad following close behind and his phone is out once again. He’s only half focusing on the road, half on the ringing in his ear as he waits for Jordan to answer. Finally the ringing stops as Stiles pulls onto the interstate.

“Parrish.”

“Deputy Parrish, Stilinski, I’d like an update on the situation,” Stiles requests, only realizing after he’s said it how his voice is still in ‘Sergeant command’ mode. Jordan sighs and Stiles almost immediately is annoyed at his nonchalance.

“Sir, I just gave you an update. Nothing has happened in the last five minutes.”

“….”

Stiles doesn’t say anything for a moment, but then Jordan groans.

“Oh my god. This is Stiles isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Stiles answers wryly.

“Damn, that was freaky you sounded exactly like your father. Okay, _your_ update. I was one of the first on the scene of Derek and Emily’s crash. Derek was not at the crash site, nor was the other vehicle. Emily was still safely in the car, she complained of a sore neck but other than minor whiplash she seemed fine. I drove her to the hospital. Your dad is there now, waiting for something to happen so he can be updated.”

“Thanks, Parrish. I’m sending a squad of Rangers to the station. They can wait there until after I stop at the hospital.”

Jordan confirms saying he'll direct them to a conference room and hangs up. Stiles then lets his squad know they’re to go to the sheriff’s station while he makes a quick stop at the hospital to check on his daughter.

The drive after he’s talked with Parrish is mostly spent thinking of the best way to conduct the search for Daehler. But time ends up passing quickly because soon enough he’s striding in to the hospital. He realizes after the fact that he burst through the doors probably with a bit more strength than he intended.

He ignores the stares and walks to the nurses station flanked by two corporals who stay a few feet behind him, giving the allusion of privacy. If they’re worth their salt they’ll pay attention to their surroundings better than Stiles is in the moment and be able to help him after his focus isn’t just on finding his daughter.

The nurse looks up at him slightly alarmed at his presence at her counter. He tries to soften his features but finds his scowl is hard to diminish when he still doesn’t know where his daughter and fiancé are.

“Emily Aleska Kowalski Stilinski, my daughter, was admitted after a car crash. Where would I find her?”

The nurse gapes a little, looking young and fresh and Stiles, not unkindly, wonders if this is her first day.

“Stiles, stop terrorizing my nurses,” he hears from down the hall and turns to see Melissa coming towards him.

He abandons the nurse at the station and strides towards Melissa, knowing she’ll have the answers to the questions he doesn’t even want to think about. He kisses her forehead and hugs her in greeting, a little desperate for any form of comfort in the moment.

He pulls back just as quickly though and looks her in the eye.

“Where’s my daughter?”

She reaches up and grips his arm tightly, making sure he’s listening.

“She’s _fine._ Parrish was on the scene minutes after the crash and got Emily out of the car and to the hospital. Daehler didn’t do _anything_ to her. I promise. She has a little whiplash and a headache so we’re just waiting on the CT scan to come back so we know she doesn’t have a concussion.”

Stiles chest tightens at the thought of his daughter going through a CT scan and being admitted to the hospital all alone. His voice is tight as well when he finds it again.

“Take me to her, please.”

Melissa’s expression softens but she just squeezes his arm again before dropping her hand and turning to lead him down the hallway. The corporals follow and after a minute of weaving through the hospital she stops in front of a patient room door. Stiles has to brace himself and takes a moment to breathe as the corporals post themselves outside the door.

But just as he reaches for the doorknob, the door swings open and his dad walks out. He gets the briefest glimpse of Emily, asleep on the bed, looking tiny and fragile before the door shuts and he’s left looking at his father in confusion.

“Should she be sleeping? Melissa said they don’t know yet if she has a concussion.”

Much like Melissa, John grabs Stiles’ biceps and holds him in place.

“Kid, the scan came back about a minute and a half ago. No concussion. And I’m sure you’d rather have her asleep than awake and panicking because her dads are fighting some unknown bad guy, with a gun.”

Stiles bristles internally at being reminded his daughter was in such extreme danger.

“Yeah,” he admits. But for as much as that’s true he also wanted to hold his daughter and assure her that he is going to get the bad man and get Derek back. He shakes his head and backs up a step so he’s not still leaning towards the door, trying to get in.

“Are you going to stay here?” he asks his dad and watches the older man shake his head.

“No, Talia is. She’s worried all this is about her family’s money?”

John crosses his arms over his chest.

“Just when were you going to tell me you’re marrying a trust fund baby?”

Corporal Kukowski snorts before he can contain the laugh and Stiles glares at him. Turning back to his dad he says, “I was under the impression I couldn’t tell you. Where is Talia?”

“Right here,” she says a little out of breath as she walks up to the group they’ve formed in the hallway.

“I just went for a cup of coffee to hold me over until Emily wakes up and we’re clear to go home.”

Stiles looks at his fiancé’s mom and can’t help but sigh. The woman who normally looks pristine in all aspects has her hair in a messy bun and is wearing a t-shirt and leggings. She looks tired and Stiles can’t have her blaming herself for another moment.

“This isn’t because of you,” he tells her bluntly. “This is because of me, I promise, and I will fix it. Derek is going to be fine and you have nothing to blame yourself for.”

Despite her appearance Stiles finds himself standing across from the lawyer Talia Hale when she straightens and looks him in the eye.

“Are you sure? This wouldn’t be the first time someone went after my family because of our name and our money.”

“This is completely unrelated. Matt Daehler has had a psychotic break and thinks I got the life he should have gotten. I have a squad with me here in Beacon Hills to find and detain him. Corporal Diaz, here, will be staying with you and Emily until this is over.”

The both nod and Stiles knows they understand each other. He looks over her shoulder at his dad and starts to back away.

“Dad, I’m going to commandeer your station.”

Talia gives him a little wave before stealing into Emily’s room and his dad starts walking with him. Stiles turns around so he’s walking forward with his dad at his side and Corporal Kukowski behind him.

“You can’t commandeer something that has been freely offered for your use,” his dad replies like he’s teaching Stiles a vocabulary lesson.

“We’ll set up an HQ at the station then. How many of your deputies can you spare?”

Stiles continues like his dad hadn’t said anything and walks quickly through the hallway towards the exit.

“I think there will be a couple around that can help out, be the local perspective,” John says as they walk out of the hospital.

“We’ll meet you there.”

His dad nods and they walk to their respective cars to drive across town to where his new squad is waiting for him. Stiles follows his dad, whose lights and sirens are both on, getting to the sheriff’s station in minutes. There’s more cars in the parking lot than Stiles is expecting and when he gets inside he understands why.

Nearly every off duty deputy on his dad’s staff is in the station. They’re all lining the walls, out of the way and organized and the squad of Rangers are standing in a group at the front desk. Before Stiles can even think of something to say his dad is already walking ahead looking at his deputies.

“What are you all doing here?” he asks a little annoyed, they don’t need this many people.

Stiles watches Officer Hayes step forward a little. Officer Hayes has been around for as long as Stiles can remember. She was one of the people who helped watch after Stiles when Claudia died. Stiles knows his dad respects her enough to listen right now.

“Parrish called and said your son-in-law had been kidnapped. We’re here to help.”

If Stiles had the time he’d probably get choked up a little. Because at her words all the off duty officers nod like they wouldn’t be anywhere else but here, trying to help their boss and his family. But Stiles doesn’t have time and his dad is already shaking his head and responding.

“I appreciate that. We both do,” he says, pointing at Stiles, “and when I have more time I will articulate how much that means to us. But. I’m not even in charge of this, so if Sergeant Stilinski says you’re extra, go home. Got it?”

They all nod again, seemingly unoffended by John’s words and Stiles steps up next to his dad and straightens his shoulders.

“I need the conference room to map out where we’re going to look for this guy. Matthew Daehler has taken Derek in an effort to get back at me. I helped train Daehler and I know what kind of place he’s going to be waiting in.”

He looks around the room at the people who have been such huge parts of his life, overwhelmed at the idea that they came running at the drop of a hat for him and his family.

“Like my dad said, we appreciate you guys coming here. But these guys in camo behind me aren’t just here to look pretty. Go home, you’re off duty, get some sleep. We’ll get this done.”

With that Stiles snags Parrish and three other deputies who are on duty and leads them and the squad into the conference room. Once they’re all in the room Stiles starts explaining how Daehler has to be holed up in some sort of abandoned building. Daehler doesn’t know the town any more than the other Rangers do so it’s not like he has an apartment or a house to use. And with the housing market the way it is Beacon Hills doesn’t have much for empty, abandoned houses.

But with the economy the way it is, there are more than a few empty factories and warehouses. If Daehler wanted to set up camp and have a place to hold Derek he’d be in one of them. He narrows it down to a half a dozen possibilities and they head out. The deputies take their cruisers and Stiles has the soldiers split up between their own vehicle and the cruisers.

The first three buildings are completely empty and there’s no signs of anyone being there recently at all. The fourth is a warehouse and there’s tire tracks leading up to a hole in the wall.

It’s amazing how smoothly things go. Even being thrown in as the ‘leader’ of the unit, Stiles doesn’t think he’s had soldiers work as well as this unit. The deputies stay with the cars, away from any possible firefight. Stiles and the other soldiers slink towards the building. Stiles heads for the entrance to the building hoping to see if the car is there while the rest fan out to secure the perimeter of the warehouse.

Between the second and third buildings Stiles had gotten a call that traffic camera images had been sorted through and they were looking for a white Ford Explorer with a busted up front end. So when Stiles peeks around the wall of the warehouse and sees that car parked inside he uses the comm line to let the unit know they’re in the right spot and that he’s entering the building.

Armed with an assault rifle and a hand gun on his hip Stiles enters the building. It’s so easy to fall back into the routine procedure of clearing out a building Stiles almost sighs. He pulls his rifle up, staring down the barrel as he takes in the first floor of the warehouse. The SUV has been parked in a small section that’s partitioned off from the rest, but Stiles is able to see a staircase in this part that isn’t seen from the rest of the building.

He rushes up the stairs, relaying his actions to his troops so they know where he is in the building. Once on the second floor he can see it’s just a balcony that overlooks the main space of the warehouse. It’s a mostly dilapidated building, with portions of the ceiling gone and debris covering the floor. But in the opposite corner Stiles can see where Daehler has set up his camp.

And where he’s tied Derek to a pillar.

After surveying the layout enough to know the path he’ll take in approaching Daehler, Stiles ducks back into the stairwell to breathe. He only allows himself a moment but he takes a moment to pull himself back from the reality of the situation.

It isn’t the man he loves tied to a pillar by a psychotic Army Ranger.

It isn’t his fiancé being held hostage and having his life threatened.

It isn’t his daughters other father in danger of being harmed or killed.

It’s just a man, with a family, that doesn’t deserve to die at the hands of a maniac.

Coordinating his plan with the troops surrounding the building Stiles comes back down the steps, gun still at the ready and starts to pick his way across the warehouse floor.

“Daehler,” he calls out, still only halfway across the long building.

“Stilinski? You’re faster than I gave you credit for,” Daehler says sounding delighted.

Stiles creeps further forward, towards the hostage and Sergeant Daehler.

“You don’t need to do this Daehler,” he says, speaking loud enough to be heard even though he’s still a good thirty yards away.

Matt just snorts in laughter and Stiles sees the Sig he’s carrying and waving around. On his next forward advancement Stiles slings the rifle around to his back and draw his Glock from the holster on his hip. He almost laughs at the fact that two snipers are about to go up against each other with handguns.

Then he watches Daehler smash the back of his gun into the back of Derek’s head and Stiles doesn’t feel like laughing anymore. Cold, hard rage flares in his gut and Stiles finally emerges from the shadows, gun drawn and faces the unstable Sergeant.

“You really don’t need to do this Daehler,” he clearly only fifteen feet away from the man causing him to startle and turn, gun raised and pointed at Stiles.

“Of course I do!” Daehler yells angrily. “Don’t you get it? You got to leave! You got to go home and build a life. But me? No, no you wouldn’t recommend me to fill your position so I couldn’t get promoted. It’s _your_ fault they pulled me off the line and sent me to a bunch of head doctors. This is all _your fault._ ”

As is the case in these types of situations, it all happens so fast. Daehler punctuated his last cry of outrage by pointing his gun at Stiles, aiming away from the Kevlar vest for Stiles’ legs. Probably in an effort to hit the femoral artery and have Stiles bleed to death before help could arrive.

But Stiles didn’t survive in a war zone for months and years on end for nothing. Anticipating his aim Stiles had dove out of the way getting hit in the outer thigh. He’s still on the floor, for the moment, even more at the mercy of Matt. But he still has his weapon, which he aims at Daehler steadily while Matt aims his own weapon at Derek’s head.

“You ruined my life,” Daehler continues, chest heaving, “so I’m ruining yours.”

A shot rings out in the warehouse and Stiles sees Derek flinch in his peripheral vision.

Because right now, all he has eyes for is the entrance wound in Sergeant Daehler’s forehead as he slumps to the ground.

**February 25th**

Derek is normally pretty good at leading in to conversations. He has had thirty years of practice after all and as a kindergarten teacher, he knows how to explain complex things in simple terms. It’s why Stiles is constantly surprised when he just randomly throws things at Stiles like he’s mid conversation in his head and has just decided now would be a good time to start saying things out loud.

Case in point.

Stiles and Derek have a weekend alone because Emily is spending some quality time with Nana Talia and Grandpa John. Stiles is attempting to recover some form of coherence after Derek did a damn fine job of sucking his brain out of his dick. Really, it’s kind of annoying how good Derek is at blowjobs. Stiles just has never enjoyed that particular activity but he figures the way Derek had gotten himself off while he blew Stiles is evidence enough how much he likes it though, and Stiles sure as hell isn’t going to complain. It’s when his brain is finally starting to come back online that he feels Derek’s thumb rubbing affectionately across his hipbone before he says, “Does this house ever not feel like ours?” and Stiles.

Stiles still needs a minute because _what?_

He shakes his head and Derek smiles softly at him and kisses him lightly before grabbing the top sheet and throwing it over the both of them content to wait it out. It takes a minute for Stiles to catch up but once he thinks he’s ready to actually, you know, converse, he brings his hand up to run his fingers through Derek’s hair.

“So the house? Doesn’t, what, feel like a home?”

Derek makes a noise of consideration like that’s not exactly what he meant.

“It feels like _a_ home, just maybe not _our_ home?”

“That- I can understand that I guess.”

Stiles can concede that at the very least. Stiles hadn’t been around or even really in the picture when Derek moved back to Beacon Hills and needed a place to live. And when Stiles moved in he wasn’t exactly in a position to suggest finding a place _together_. All things considered though it’s a pretty nice house. Stiles doesn’t complain about much because, really, he could still be in a tent in a desert halfway across the world. It occurs to him as they lay there thinking that Derek didn’t even pick out the house. He helped furnish it to a degree but his mother had been the one who found and purchased the house for Derek to live in.

Stiles always thought it was a welcome home present of epic proportions but didn’t think it was his place to really ask about it. He knew from seeing the Hale house and family that the Hale’s probably had more money than they knew what to do with. Stiles has never known what that is like. Even though they’re engaged they haven’t had a real need to discuss finances yet. Which, honestly, that should have been reason enough to discuss their finances.

He twists his engagement band around his finger and thinks. He thinks about going house hunting with his fiancé, finding a house with more rooms, more space. He thinks about if they’ll somehow get themselves more kids. He thinks about getting their house ready together and then planning a wedding and moving in after they’re officially husbands.

He’s brought back to the present by Derek peppering kisses across his face.

“Where’d you go?” he murmurs.

“Do you want more kids?”

See, Stiles can drop whole conversations on a person too. Derek’s head pops up to look at him but he’s smiling, seemingly unsurprised.

“I knew that’s where your brain took you.” He leans down to kiss Stiles firmly on the lips. He pulls back still smiling. “I don’t want Emily to be an only child.”

Stiles returns his smile and Derek lays back down and snuggles in even though they’re already completely pressed together in the middle of the queen sized bed. He lets out a breath and actually continues his line of thought out loud this time.

“Adoption, foster care, or surrogacy?”

They haven’t had this conversation really at all. So through cuddles, showering, getting redressed, changing the sheets and going downstairs to make themselves some food they get it all out. They talk about how Stiles grew up an only child and his biggest wish has always been to build himself a big family. Derek grew up with so many siblings and has such a big supportive family that he can’t imagine having his own kids not grow up like that. In the end they’re leaning towards adoption with the feeling that there are so many kids already out there in need of a family that it wouldn’t make sense to bother with surrogacy.

They have to table the discussion when Emily comes home with John in favor of making supper for her and hearing about her adventures with grandpa from the day. But Stiles figures they’re on a similar page now even though they still will need to discuss things. It gives him the silly warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest knowing Derek thinks about their future just as much as Stiles does.

**May 27 th**

**19:17**

Having backup and local law enforcement there makes this next part really easy for Stiles. Matt is dead and doesn’t need anyone to deal with him that isn’t a coroner. Stiles doesn’t even need to signal for the other soldiers to enter the building. At the sound of the shot they had breached the perimeter and are all there in the building, securing Matt’s weapon and all the military property he’d stolen to build his little camp. All Stiles has to focus on is his fiancé. So that’s exactly what he does. And he knows that while he deals with Derek they’ll be dealing with Matt’s body and getting it to the appropriate people.

He’s still riding the high of adrenaline and endorphins as he shuffles over to get Derek untied. Derek’s eyes are wide and worried as he wriggles in place still trying to free himself even as Stiles approaches. He stills when Stiles pulls a knife out of his pocket and flicks the blade open. He thinks Derek might be panicking or is in shock but is surprised when Derek’s gaze stays fixed on Stiles’ leg and the wound bleeding sluggishly there.

Well, ‘sluggish’ by Stiles’ standards.

“Stiles, your leg,” Derek says urgently as Stiles shuffles the rest of the way over to him and goes right for the rope tying Derek to the pole and then the one keeping his feet together.

“Derek, your _head_ ,” Stiles replies dryly, rolling his eyes a little as he gets the last of the restraints off Derek.

But Derek just shakes his head as Stiles helps him to his feet. Derek sways a little even as he starts arguing again.

“Gunshot wound beats out mild concussion.”

Stiles gets Derek’s arm around his shoulders so he can keep him steady as they walk to the car. The unit is busy cleaning up and loading their gear back into their vehicles, getting ready to take it all back to base. Stiles just gets Derek into the passenger seat of the Charger and watches him buckle his seatbelt before he leans down, one arm on Derek’s seat above his shoulder and the other on the top of the car.

“Battle seasoned veteran versus first time kidnap victim. I’m winning this one, Derek,” he says with a relieved smile. Derek sighs and his eyes close as Stiles kisses him briefly. He shuts the door on Derek and there’s a private standing behind him waiting with a roll of gauze. It’s a matter of moments before his thigh is wrapped in clean white and he’s good to drive himself and Derek to the hospital. He thanks the corporal and climbs in behind the wheel.

After he gets out of the parking lot and headed towards the hospital he reaches over and squeezes Derek’s hand.

“Don’t fall asleep on me now.”

Derek shakes his head and slowly opens his eyes. Stiles looks between him and the road making sure he’s still coherent. Derek just smiles and squeezes Stiles’ hand back.

“I won’t.”

Stiles doesn’t make Derek talk because neither of them are ready to go over exactly how the last 12 hours have transpired. Derek gets a little sleepy, though, towards the end of the drive. Stiles pulls right up to the door of the ER and Derek’s eyes flutter open again. When did they close?

“And so the king rescued his prince,” Derek mumbles and Stiles’ chest tightens for a moment before the nurses are rushing out to the car and pulling Derek’s door open. He gets his own seat belt off and goes to get out of the car but his leg crumples when he puts weight on it and he has to catch himself with his hands before he smacks his head on the concrete with the fall. Immediately there’s someone there, helping him up and in through the doors towards a gurney. Stiles loses track of Derek who already has a gurney and his family surrounding him. Stiles gets wheeled towards triage a moment later.

**April 28 th **

There was a day where Stiles worked later than Derek. It didn’t happen often and he really doesn’t like it when it occurs. But after his day which included not only making three extra rounds of muffins but baking and decorating six dozen Bob the Builder themed cupcakes.

He is tired. He is sticky. And he really just wants a shower, his couch and his fiancé to bring him a tall glass of something. Water, juice, or some _scotch_. He only had to make six dozen Bob the Builder cupcakes because the first three dozen ended up on the floor when Peggy, one of the owners, came in and knocked them off the counter. Completely an accident but no less absolutely infuriating.

But instead of walking in and getting hugs from his daughter and kisses from Derek he’s greeted with…silence. He drops his keys on the kitchen counter and follows the muffled sounds in one of the bedrooms up the stairs.

There’s a pillow propped against the wall across from Emily’s door haphazardly, a football and various stuffed animals strewn in the hallway. He picks his way through the discarded toys and peers in the room. He stands in the doorway with his jaw on the floor as he takes in his daughter’s room.

It’s a _disaster_.

Toys are everywhere, her bed is a mess of blankets and sheets and the pillows are all over the room. Her stuffed animal collection that usually takes up residence in the basket at the end of her bed is in various places in the room. There’s two in the curtains, one on the closet door, a few on her chair and one half hanging out the window. Her plastic eggs back from Easter must have been pulled from her closet because there are neon colored eggs scattered all around the room. Her lamp shade is crooked and her clothes are spilling out of her closet and dresser.

It’s just so _weird_. His daughter is even neater than he is so the current state of utter disarray is just, utterly and completely shocking.

But the room isn’t as baffling as its occupants.

Derek is standing on the bed crouched a little to reach Emily who is still on the floor. He watches his fiancé actually bounce on the bed as the two continue their sword fight. They still haven’t noticed him but Stiles actually can’t stop staring. They’re all dressed up and Derek is-

“Are those your _running_ _tights_?” Stiles blurts and the pair stop playing immediately. Derek straightens before he looks around and cringes.

“I- To be fair, things kind of escalated? And I promise to help with clean up.”

Stiles shakes his head. He doesn’t even care about the mess; his daughter wouldn’t sleep before everything was back in its place. She got that from her mom.

“What are you guys doing?”

They’re both obviously dressed up for something. Derek has running tights and shorts on but the best part is the poofy sleeved long sleeved shirt that appears to have rubber bands in the arms to make it look suspiciously like the pirate shirt from Seinfeld. That and the flower crown resting in his dark hair makes Stiles think he’s probably a prince. His daughter has her own outfit of leggings, too big shirt and a crown of her own but hers is a headband wrapped around her head to look like a crown instead.

“Playing princes, daddy!” Emily cries with a smile.

Stiles grins at her as he crouches down when she walks towards him dragging her sword behind her.

“Princes, huh?”

“Yup.”

She drops the sword and gives him a hug and a smacking kiss across his cheek.

“And what were my princes fighting over on this fine afternoon?”

“We fought over who had the honor of loving our king more,” Derek announces, changing his voice a little like he does when they all read stories, and steps off the bed.

“Oh?”

He looks back at Emily as she pulls back and runs back to Derek’s arms. He swings her up into his arms and Stiles’ heart kind of melts when they smile at each other with so much genuine affection.

“And who is this honorable king?”

His daughter rolls her eyes at him for his silliness.

“You are dad, duh.”

Stiles breath catches and he stands up from his crouch so quickly his head spins a little.

“I- I’m your king?”

“Of course, dad,” she says earnestly. “You love us and protect us and bake us treats. You do anything to make us happy.”

Stiles feels like he’s been punched in the chest. It’s not like he’s worried about his relationship with his daughter before. Or wondered if his long absences would harbor any resentment or if she really understood what he was doing and why. He hasn’t worried at all if she really understands when he whispers that he loves her and would do anything to keep her safe.

Except that’s exactly what he worries about. And his behavior and struggles when he first came back only made it worse.

So maybe it’s dumb but hearing her say that so easily just stole the breath right out of him. He’s embarrassingly fighting tears back but Sadie and Derek come to his rescue.

“Fair prince, our king needs a shower and a meal. Can you start picking up your room for me?”

Stiles is already walking down the hall towards his and Derek’s room but he hears her say, “Okay, dad. Is daddy okay?”

“He’s okay, he’s just tired and happy and it’s making him have feelings.”

“Ugh, daddy doesn’t like feelings.”

She says disgruntled and he can just picture her nose all scrunched up in fake disgust. He can hear Derek’s footsteps moments later follow him into their room and he stands there trying to pull it together. But Derek sidles up behind him, puts his chin on Stiles’ shoulder and wraps his strong arms around Stiles’ waist.

Stiles just covers his face with his hands and holds back the tears. It’s just, _overwhelming_. He’s been mostly alone with only a young child and his dad for some time. He had his unit of course, and Scott, but for a long time Scott and Allison were his only people. His only support. And now he has his dad and Allison and Derek and Emily and Derek’s family and friends all there with him.

It just hit him like a truck hearing that comment from his daughter that she knew he was there to keep her happy. Because it’s one thing to tell your kid that you’re going halfway across the world to protect people and that when he gets back he’ll be protecting her. It’s another to have her say so easily and seriously that she knows he’s there because he loves her. That he was never gone because of her and that it was never because he didn’t want to be around her.

He still has his daughter and his being an army sniper didn’t mess that up.

Derek gives him a minute for his breath to stop shuddering before he kisses Stiles’ neck and quietly asks if he’s okay.

Stiles turns around and kisses him soundly, pleased when he pulls back and Derek looks a little dazed.

“I’m _wonderful,”_ he assures _. “_ And apparently, I’m royalty. Does the title come with any perks?”

Derek snorts at Stiles’ grin.

“You get to cook your princes’ supper while they clean up Emily’s room.”

Stiles smiles and kisses him again. And again. Just because he can. He snaps one of the rubber bands on Derek’s arm and runs away from his fiancé cackling. Derek chases after him but Stiles zigs when Derek zags and instead of getting a swat on the ass like Derek was going for he just barrels on down the stairs to start cooking up a meal for his incredible family.

**May 27 th**

**20:00**

Things got a little blurry for Derek towards the end of the car ride to the hospital. He came back around to a more steady state of awareness as he was wheeled through the emergency room on a gurney to triage.

“Mr. Hale, can you hear me?”

He focuses on the doctor speaking to him and flashing that stupid light in his eyes to gauge his pupil reaction. And really, they’re not going to need to run very many tests on him because it’s pretty damn obvious that he has a concussion. The bleeding temple, huge bump on the back of his head and the lethargy are some pretty good indicators.

“Yes,” he slurs back to the doctor.

He looks around and Stiles is nowhere to be seen. It registers in his brain that Stiles currently has a bullet in his thigh and they’re in a hospital so he’s probably getting that taken care of. But he doesn’t have time to feel bereft of Stiles or alone at all because his mother is barreling into the room mere seconds later.

“Derek,” she breathes in relief and is suddenly right there next to the bed across from the doctor, holding his hand and softly brushing his hair from his forehead.

“Mrs. Hale- Talia- You can’t be in here yet; the nurses still need to take care of your son.”

Derek fights to bite back a smirk knowing exactly what look his mother is giving the doctor. But she surprises him by kissing his forehead gently and pulling back a few feet to let the nurses back in next to him. When Derek finds himself looking back at the doctor he seems mildly frightened but continues his examination with steady hands.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for the nurses to clean the blood from his face and his hair while the doctor finishes his examination. There’s no stitches required, thank goodness. But they do have to put a nice big bandage right on the side of his face. Someone brings him an ice pack for the back of his head and then the nurses let his mom return to his side.

The doctor clicks his pen into his clipboard and smiles weakly at the pair of them.

“So, as suspected you have a concussion. We’re going to keep you here for a couple of hours for observation. I understand your fiancé is somewhere around here with a gunshot wound? So as soon as his condition is known and stable you’ll be moved to share a room with him barring any complications. If you need anything, the button for the nurses is right on your left there.”

Derek peeks down at the arm of the bed to make sure he knows where the button is and by the time he looks back up the doctor is gone. With the door shut and the room suddenly empty it becomes startlingly quiet. He looks back up and finds his mom smiling softly at him as she cards her fingers through his hair.

“Hi, mom.”

“Hey, sweetie,” she says quietly.

Derek sighs and looks down at where their hands are intertwined on the bed next to his leg.

“Doesn’t feel quite so weird second time around does it?”

His mom squeezes his hand and shakes her head at him.

“Nope, it’s still just as traumatizing to have your son kidnapped when he’s 30 than it was when he’s 16. At least this time, our family isn’t to blame.”

Derek nods a little in agreement, trying not to dislodge the ice pack from where he’s pressing it between his head and the pillow. He thinks back on the first time they went through this. The motive behind what happened was pretty messed up. The Argent family apparently has had a long standing feud with the Hales. And while the past few generations have managed to coexist without issue, Gerard Argent and his daughter had different ideas.

Derek had been kidnapped from his school parking lot after basketball practice. He’d been knocked unconscious and thrown in a vehicle. When he woke up he’d been bound and left alone in a cold damp cellar. He wasn’t alone for long before Kate Argent had come in to watch over him. He hadn’t been beaten, but the psychological torture she inflicted in those few hours affected him for nearly a year after.

But no one would argue with him that it would take time to get past having been convinced that his family had been burned alive as their house burned down around them. She’d shown him video footage of his house on fire and left him to his panic and grief. When she came back she knocked him out and then they left him back in the school parking lot where a late working teacher found him and called an ambulance. It did nothing to calm him down when his mom showed up at the hospital and he burst into tears when he smelled the smoke on her.

It took a long while to convince Derek nearly everyone was fine, that everyone but his youngest brother had made it out unscathed. So back then, it was easy to cope by blaming those clearly guilty: the Argents. But now…

“Stiles will think he’s to blame though.”

He peeks over at his mom and watches her nod sadly.

“For a little while, but I’m sure you and others will assure him that he isn’t responsible for the actions of others. Especially, a mentally unstable man that Stiles warned his superior officers about previously.”

Derek raises an eyebrow at his mother in question of how she knows that. She simply rolls her eyes at him good naturedly.

“I was here with John and Emily when Stiles came bursting in the hospital with part of his unit.”

“Where is Emily?” Derek asks hurriedly. He blames the head injury for not asking or thinking of it sooner.

“She’s with the corporal that was assigned to stay with us for now,” she calms him. “I didn’t know what you would look like or how badly you were hurt and didn’t want her to see you like that if it was bad. He took her to the park a few blocks away but I can call him and have him bring her back. ”

Derek nods quickly and his mom pulls out her phone and calls the private. The call is quick and easy and Derek relaxes back into the pillows once he knows Emily will be on her way over to the hospital soon. His mom adjusts the ice pack, pulls a chair up next to the bed and returns her hold on his hand with both of hers. He calms even more when she brushes her thumb soothingly across the top of his hand. He’s fighting sleep and decides talking will have to be the distraction that keeps him awake.

“I thought being kidnapped and strung up by the Argents at 16 was going to be the one and only time in my life to experience being completely and utterly helpless,” he sighs. “How did I cope last time?”

His mother smiles at him wryly but not unkindly.

“You didn't, sweetie. You practically hid from the world and it took meeting Boyd and Erica and Isaac to bring you back. I got you back for the last two years of high school before I lost you again to New York.”

Derek winces guiltily; he hadn't meant to hurt anybody by staying in New York. In reality, he thought he was only hurting himself. But his mom barrels on and ignores his shame filled musings.

“You should call those three and Allison in the next couple days and have them come over. I'll take the twins or Melissa can too and you all can just hang out in your new house and break in that new entertainment room together.”

Derek nods and listens to his mom talk to stay awake. She tells him about Stiles’ theatrical entrance to the hospital. How she’d worried he’d been taken again because of her money. But then she shifts to what case she’s been working on and how his dad is trying to get a flight back from his Phoenix business trip. She’s telling him something about Nana when the door to his room flies open and bangs into the wall.

Emily runs into the room eyes wide and arms reaching out for him.

“Dad!” she cries and a man in uniform is right behind her and lifts her up onto the bed.

Her arms wrap around his neck tightly and Derek’s heart breaks in half when he feels her shuddering breaths and he knows she’s crying. He just runs a hand up and down her back until she calms down long enough to pull back and talk to him. He hates that she’s had to go through this as he swipes his thumbs across her cheeks, brushing the tear tracks away. 

“Are you okay? That man _took_ you. What happened to your head? _Where’s dad_? Nobody’s told me anything.”

Her voice wavers as she spews out her questions in a manner so similar to Stiles it’s ridiculous. Her hands come up, hovering next to his bandaged head like she doesn’t want to hurt him, so he grabs them, bringing her focus back to his face and not his injuries.

“Hey, hey. I’m okay,” he says slowly.

He takes one of her hands in his and brings it around to the back of his head letting her feel the bump there.

“I’ve got a bump right there and I needed a bandage on a cut but I’m fine. I promise. They’re just watching me making sure my head is really okay. Do you understand?”

She nods a little and he smiles at her, trying to show he’s really okay, before bringing his hands up to hold her face and pull her forward to kiss her forehead. Then he just pulls her down the rest of the way in so she’s laying on his chest, head tucked into his neck as he wraps his arms around her.

“As for your dad, the last I saw him the doctors were taking good care of him. He-“

Derek chances a glance at his mom, and at her nod, realizes Emily will find out one way or another, and it might as well happen now with him.

“The bad man shot him in the leg,” she tries to sit up but Derek keeps her wrapped in a tight hug, “but he’s going to be just fine. We got here to the hospital and the doctors are dealing with it and I’m sure they’ll tell us soon how he’s doing.”

She just nods into his neck and clings a little tighter.

“He’s not going to die?” she asks weakly.

“No,” Derek says a little more fiercely than he intended as he tightens his hug. “No, he’s not going to die.”

She loses the last bit of tension in her body finally and relaxes into his hold. He’s incredibly grateful that not five minutes later the doctor walks in with news on Stiles.

“Alright, I understand I’m speaking with the rest of Mr. Stilinski’s next of kin?”

They all nod.

“Okay, he’s out of surgery; he needed to be put under general anesthesia but should waking up shortly. The bullet passed on the outside of his femur so there was less damage than there could have been. Mr. Hale, I’ve arranged for you to be moved from here to a room with Mr. Stilinski. The nurses will be in shortly to take you there. As soon as Mr. Stilinski has fully regained consciousness I’ll stop in and explain the prognosis and recovery.”

Derek barely has a ‘thank you doctor,’ said before the man has walked out the door and moved on to his next patient. Eventually his mom takes Emily from him and the nurses come in to help him into a wheelchair. He was going to protest the need for it but he keeps his mouth shut after getting dizzy just sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

The nurse wheels him into the room where Stiles is laying, still unconscious, on his bed with John beside him. When Derek gets pushed into the room, his mom and Emily behind him, John stands up and comes over to Derek. He hardly has the patience for the nurse to lock the wheels on the chair so Derek can stand up and allow John to pull him into a tight embrace.

“You okay, kid?” he asks gruffly.

Derek nods slightly, trying to keep from getting dizzy.

“Yes, sir.”

Between John and the nurse they get Derek settled on the second bed in the room. Derek isn’t hooked up to any monitors anymore so, once the nurse leaves, John and Talia roll the bed a few feet so Derek is much closer to Stiles. Taking advantage of the new proximity, Derek reaches a hand out and holds Stiles’ over the inch of space between the mattresses.

Emily sits with John and Talia drags another chair up to sit next to him. Stiles’ leg is propped up on a pillow on top of the sheet and Derek has a hard time not staring at the stark white bandage wrapped around it. John and Talia and Emily keep up their own conversation as Derek rests his head back on his pillows and closes his eyes.

Five minutes later Stiles starts mumbling.

“Pineapple.”

Derek cracks his eyes open and stares at the ceiling, wondering if he imagined Stiles speaking or not.

“Funnel cakes,” Stiles mutters on a breath.

Derek looks over at his fiancé, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as the rest of them do the same.

“S _nnnnn_ ickerdoodles.”

Emily giggles and Derek rolls his eyes and leans back on his pillows. He suppresses a sigh because he should have expected this from Stiles’ mind.

“Snicker _doodles_.”

John and Talia join in the laughter and then Stiles starts laughing with them, squeezing Derek's hand as he does. Derek doesn't know if it was genuine or an act but the effect was the same regardless. The tension left in the room has almost completely vanished. 

Stiles takes a while to wake up and be a little more coherent. In the meantime Derek is regaled with Stiles' adventures and quests. He basically outlines the entire plot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with himself as King Arthur. It is hands down one of the funniest experiences of Derek's life. 

Right up until John pulls a video up on his phone of Stiles after having his wisdom teeth removed. 

"You mean I'm not a spice girl?" A younger, baby faced Stiles implores at his father. "I'm supposed to be a spice girl."

Derek laughs so hard tears are spilling down his face and his stomach aches with the effort.

Once Stiles is back to normal the doctor comes back in and thoroughly explains how they’ll be treating Stiles’ wounded leg and the process of physical therapy. This time the doctor is in the room for quite a while explaining and answering questions from both Stiles and Derek. Once everyone is satisfied the doctor clears Stiles for visitors.

The doctor leaves and John passes Emily to Stiles, allowing the two to embrace for the first time since this whole mess started hours ago. John and Talia excuse themselves from the room and go to call Stiles’ and Derek’s friends. Emily doesn’t move from her spot carefully sprawled on Stiles’ chest and Derek just grabs Stiles’ hand tightly.

He sees Stiles sigh and close his eyes, predictably falling back asleep after they’ve had a few minutes to enjoy a little family time in silence.

Not long after Stiles and Emily drift off to sleep, Derek’s doctor comes in and quietly clears Derek to get dressed and go home whenever he’s ready.

Derek is just falling asleep himself when John comes in and sits down; Talia comes back and kisses his forehead gently, telling him she’s going to go get him some fresh clothes.

He’s asleep before she has the door shut behind her.

>><< 

Derek doesn’t know how long he’s been asleep but he wakes up to mild chaos in their room. Isaac is next to Stiles' bed with Sadie looking deep in discussion with Stiles. Allison and Erica are talking with Talia at the foot of the beds and next to Derek's bed  Boyd is talking with Melissa and Emily. John is by the door with the same man in uniform that brought Emily back to the hospital. 

Derek watches them all converse quietly while he wakes up the rest of the way until his mom catches his eye and smiles. 

"You're awake!" 

Derek nods at his mother, annoyed that he's now the focus in the room. Except for Stiles and Isaac, they're still talking fervently, so quiet that even Derek can't hear what they're saying. He watches Stiles for a moment, noting how pinched his expression is and wonders what he's worked up over.

His mom doesn't make him try and come up with anything to say and offers  him  an out with the clothes she brought him. Crawling out of bed is a lot easier this time but Boyd and Melissa both step closer, ready to grab him if he goes too fast. 

"Thanks," he tells them and squeezes Melissa's hand that she'd stuck out to reach for him. 

Walking past his mom he grabs his clothes and gets pulled into a quick hug. He changes quickly stuffing his dirty, dusty clothes into the empty grocery sack. He relieves himself quickly, splashes some water on his face after washing his hands and reemerges into the room where his family is waiting. 

Stiles’ goofy demeanor from before their naps has disappeared, being replaced with a tense, almost worried appearance.  But, a room full of their friends and parents isn’t the place to address it. So Derek leaves him to his discussion with Isaac and focuses on Emily and their friends.

Derek hopes that Stiles won’t try and hide what’s bothering him this time. He doesn’t want to relive the last time he brought Stiles home with a cast on his leg.

**April 22 nd **

Having a night out for dinner either just with Derek or with friends is a rarity for Stiles. It’s, obviously, mainly due to the fact that he has a kid, and her schedule and needs tend to always take precedence. But today Stiles and Derek signed the papers and closed on the six bedroom dream house in the woods. And they are going to celebrate darn it.

It’s only been a few days since the softball practice fiasco/discussion of Emily calling them both dad, but Stiles has done a lot in those days. Even after Emily’s little speech Stiles could tell Derek still had some issues. Issues Stiles wanted resolved before they left their bed the next morning.

With Derek in his arms Stiles spent a better part of the morning telling him how great he is with Emily. How from the very beginning he has done nothing but love her and genuinely care about her. He reminds Derek how amazing it was that he offered to help watch over her while Stiles was overseas for that last mission. He tells Derek his feelings on the matter, which are that Derek has been a parent to Emily pretty much since Stiles got back after Scott’s death.

He listens to Derek quietly admit that he didn’t want to do anything in fear of it seeming like he wanted to replace Stiles as a parent. That he was worried about overstepping someday and that Stiles would be mad Derek had become a parent. Stiles saw how deeply concerned Derek was at being something that came between Emily and Stiles. But Stiles knows that Derek would never do that and assured Derek of that.

It takes some time and some gentle reassurance combined with soft kisses and tight embraces before Stiles is sure Derek believes him completely.

Having had the conversation about dad’s with Emily made it a little easier to approach the topic of the new house. They hadn’t told her anything about it yet in fear of jinxing anything happening with the house. They didn’t want to get her hopes up only to have to have something fall through with the deal and not get the house.

But yesterday they got the call that their offer had been accepted and everything at the bank was good and they could close on the house today. So they decided it was time to sit Emily down and explain that they’d be moving. She really didn’t seem to care one way or another that she was leaving this house and going to a new one. Stiles figured she’d show a bit more enthusiasm once she saw the pool. As it was, yesterday she was more excited to spend the night with Nana Talia at her house so Stiles and Derek could go out and celebrate.

The first part of the day was completely normal. Emily and Derek went to the school and Stiles went to work. But instead of Stiles and Derek going to softball practice, Derek picked Stiles up from work minutes after school was over and they drove like crazy to get across town to the bank before their scheduled time. They know Talia is the one sitting in the stands today waiting for Emily to get done with practice so they can have their evening together.

The bank goes about as smoothly as it possibly can. There’s signatures and initials and long intricate documents that Derek just blindly signs. Stiles has already read everything in the documents over the past month. Twice. So he signs knowing exactly what they’re agreeing to. At the end of it all they’re given keys and the title for the land and the house and they are now homeowners.

They drive to the house right after that and let themselves in with their new keys. Stiles starts walking around letting plans form and ideas roll through his brain about what he wants to do with this house now that it’s theirs. He picks at his tie absently while he thinks.

Derek normally wears his slacks and a dress shirt to work and Stiles felt like getting dressed up for the occasion so they’d match a little at the bank. He’s used to ‘dressing up’ meaning dusting off his dress uniform and ironing out any wrinkles. It was a little odd, and took some adjusting, to wear slacks, a button up, tie and one of Derek’s vests.

The only thing that spoiled it was his eyes were so irritated this morning he ended up wearing his glasses. They’re old and square and thick rimmed and dark and Stiles _hates_ wearing them. He makes his fingers stop fiddling with the tie and turns to find where Derek is. He’d gone quiet when they reached the house and Stiles doesn’t remember when Derek stopped following him.

He finds Derek in the kitchen staring out the windows.

“Derek?” he asks quietly, hoping not to startle him.

His tie is bugging the crap out of him though, it’s so _itchy,_ so he starts to pull on it as Derek turns around. He watches Derek’s eyes look him up and down. From his face, his fingers pulling at the tie, his crotch, his legs and back to his face. Stiles sees a hungry expression on Derek’s face slowly grow when Derek stalks towards him.

He lets out a shaky laugh, “Derek?”

Stiles steps back, away, but Derek is quicker and soon enough Stiles’ back is pressed against the wall and Derek is pressed against his front, warm hands wrapped around his sides, holding Stiles in place. Having Derek pressed against him isn’t unfamiliar but the fact that they’re vertical and against a wall is new.

Stiles isn’t objecting by any means but he’s not sure what’s going through his fiancé’s mind right now. They’ve never done the run at each other and have wild, passionate sex thing. Sex mostly happens when they’re a) not too tired or b) have a sitter for Emily. Nothing kills the mood like your kid knocking on the door.

With how close they are Stiles expects a kiss but Derek just keeps looking at him before he slowly moves in and ducks his head to the side. Stiles’ eyes flutter close when Derek kisses the side of his neck right behind his ear.

“I love you,” he mumbles into the skin there before he switches sides, finding the place that makes Stiles’ knees actually _weak_. Derek kisses and sucks and nips at the spot until Stiles legs give out and Derek’s the one holding him up. Stiles can already feel Derek pressing against his own growing arousal. Derek pulls back slightly and looks at Stiles again, eyes dark and smirk dangerous.

“You are so fucking hot. And I get to marry you and do this forever.”

Finally Derek kisses him, hard and insistent and Stiles’ head gets pushed back against the wall and he feels almost helpless to whatever Derek wants to take from him. He opens his mouth on a gasp and Derek takes advantage, sliding his tongue against Stiles’. Heat starts pooling low in Stiles’ gut. He finally gets his head together a little and soon his hands find their way into Derek’s hair, tugging and pulling at Derek until they find the right angle. It’s wet and fast and wilder than anything Stiles has experienced with Derek.

He realizes they must have been kissing longer than Stiles thought because he’s panting to catch his breath when they break apart.

Derek smirks again, dirty and smug, as he drags his hands down Stiles back to his ass and squeezes.

“Jump,” he instructs and Stiles does right as Derek lifts and he ends up with his legs around Derek’s waist, ankles crossed keeping him in place. He’s not the biggest guy around but muscle is heavy. Derek walks them across the kitchen quickly and puts Stiles on the counter.

Stiles legs fall open and Derek is still there pressed in close. They’re both completely hard now but Derek shows no signs of stopping as he goes right back to Stiles’ neck and Stiles tilts his head back to give him more room to work.

“Der- is this, oh, is this because of the vest? Cause that’s-“ He hisses when Derek’s teeth scrape along his jaw making him shudder. “That’s kind of possessive of you.”

Derek stops his attack on Stiles’ neck only long enough to reclaim his lips in a kiss that leaves Stiles dazed when he pulls back. His hands start pulling at the back of Stiles’ shirt untucking it and the vest all the way around to the front.

“I don’t know. I’m not really analyzing it.”

Stiles gets his hands in Derek’s shirt and starts undoing buttons before Derek is kissing him again. Then it’s a flurry of hands and shirts coming off and a few moments of glorious friction when their hips meet and grind together. Stiles has to pull away to catch his breath sooner than he’d like but he goes for the spot where Derek’s shoulder meets his neck and bites, relishing the groan it pulls from Derek. He kisses the spot before pulling back, hands cupping Derek’s flushed face.

“What are we _doing_? We don’t have anything here…”

He trails off when Derek thrusts his hips forward a few times against Stiles’ and he watches Derek’s mouth drop open and his eyes slowly close. He’s all flushed and his lips are bruised, his hair is sticking up all over from Stiles’ hands pulling on it and he’s- he is beautiful. He shakes his head at Stiles without dislodging Stiles’ hands.

“I just- just this,” he says, hips still undulating, “want to see you come.”

“What has gotten into you? I’m not coming in my pants,” Stiles protests as Derek steps back slightly.

“Fine. Take ‘em off then,” he smirks again, as he undoes his own belt and kicks off his shoes.

Stiles is quick to follow suit, kicking his shoes off and behind Derek before he’s shucking his dress pants off his hips. Derek is already there pulling them off his legs and tossing them aside with the rest of the clothes. Their separation has done nothing to diminish their arousal and Stiles’ mouth waters a little looking over his husband-to-be’s body. Rippling abs, strong thighs, soft pecs, wide shoulders, hmmm…yeah, he needed to get back over here, like, five minutes ago. He makes grabby hands and Derek smiles wickedly as he steps back towards him.

But instead of fitting between Stiles legs again he pushes them together and then pushes his knees _back_ forcing Stiles to slide his boxer brief covered ass across the counter. And then Derek fucking _climbs on top_ of both Stiles and the counter and it’s a good thing they haven’t moved in because they are completely spread out covering most of the counter space with Stiles’ head half over the edge and Derek’s feet in the sink.

Derek’s lips find Stiles’ again and that heat in his gut gets stoked into flames. Stiles’ hands smooth down Derek’s back, moving down and down so he can grip that perfect ass and give Derek’s movements some rhythm. The hard surface digging into his back gets forgotten in the haze of kisses and the friction of their hips moving together.

It doesn’t take long before Stiles’ hands are gripping at Derek’s shoulders as he shudders and shakes while he comes. Derek grinds his hips, once, twice, three more times before he shivers in Stiles’ hold and comes as well.

They’re still kissing when Derek shifts them onto their sides facing each other, legs tangled together. It’s not even remotely comfortable but luckily they’re still riding the afterglow.

“That was, new,” Stiles pants.

Derek laughs and pecks his lips one last time with a quick kiss.

“You don’t know what you do to me. Wearing your ring, building a future with me, giving me a family of my own, and then those clothes,” he groans. “And the glasses, fuck, where did those _come from?_ ”

Stiles looks at him like he’s a little crazy, but to be fair, he _never_ wears his glasses.

“I’ve had them,” Stiles says slowly and shrugs, “they’re not my favorite and my contacts never really give me trouble so I don’t wear them.”

“You should,” Derek says firmly and kisses him again.

Too soon the post-orgasmic haze wears off and they crawl off the counter. Stiles can’t stop laughing under his breath replaying what just happened in his brain as they try to clean up. Luckily they find an empty grocery sack under the sink they can throw their underwear in after wiping themselves off. They both choose to just go commando in their pants for the drive home.

Once they get there they jump in the shower together to quickly get cleaned up so they’re not late for supper. Stiles puts the same clothes back on, leaving the tie and letting Derek roll the sleeves of his shirt up exposing his forearms. Turnabout is fair play because he does the same thing to Derek and understands why Derek’s eyes keep straying to look at Stiles’ arms and hands.

They’re pretty fucking attractive people and Stiles actually feels like it when they walk in the restaurant and get a lot of appreciate glances. Most of the time he’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a baseball cap for both work and just being a dad. And that’s what he always feels like, a dad. But with Derek by his side, knowing just what they look like he feels pretty awesome by the time they are seated at the table.

They get their drinks while they wait for Erica, Boyd and Isaac to show up. Allison’s little girl was running a fever otherwise she was going to have Melissa watch the twins and join them all. Stiles is halfway through his first beer and has completely shredded his napkin before Isaac walks in.

“Hey, guys.” He greets with a smile as he slides into the booth opposite them. “The other two are right behind me. Erica got held up at work so they were running a little late.”

“So, everything’s normal,” Derek quips with a smile as the two in question walk in the door.

Erica looks flustered, but still perfectly put together as Boyd strides calmly behind her towards their table. She huffs as she sits down and slides over making room for her husband.

“Hi guys. Sorry we’re late. Damn kid wouldn’t tell us what he OD’ed on.” She shakes her head, “Guy almost didn’t make it.”

Boyd wraps his arm around her shoulders and Isaac pats at her hand. Before Stiles gets the chance to say anything to make her feel better the waitress pops up and takes their drink order. After that it’s like she’s already shaken it off as she fixes Derek and him with a bright smile.

“So?” she questions, “Are we moving you from house in town to mansion in the woods?”

Stiles quirks an eyebrow at Derek who’s just smiling so big his eyes are crinkling.

“Signed the papers today; we can move in whenever we want!”

Isaac and Erica cheer and Boyd cracks a smile. The waitress comes back with their drinks then and takes their orders interrupting the celebration a little.

“So this is nice,” Isaac says once the waitress leaves again. “I think the last time we did this was when we were meeting you for the first time Stiles.”

Stiles nods in agreement as Erica scrunches her nose a little.

“Let’s not wait as long to do this again though. And next time we’ll get Allison here too.”

“It’s hard,” Derek starts and Stiles just barely represses a smirk, “with Emily and Allison with the twins. I mean, I know my mom doesn’t mind watching her but we don’t want to be taking advantage either.”

Boyd snorts, “Please, Derek, your mother loves having Emily around. She finally has a little girl there again who doesn’t question her every move like Laura and Veive do.”

The rest of the table laughs as Derek gets ready to defend his sisters purely from habit. Before he can Erica cuts him off.

“And it’s not like you have problems sending her to one of her grandparents’ houses so you guys can get some. I bet this is the first time you got a sitter and didn’t have sex.”

Stiles picks up his beer to hide his smile behind it. Predictably, Derek is the one who gives them away though. Isaac laughs and points to his ears when Erica looks at him questioningly.

“He can’t keep his ears from turning pink,” Isaac laughs before he turns his accusatory finger on Stiles. “Plus, Stiles has a hickey behind his ear. It’s Derek’s favorite spot.”

“Ten bucks says they did it in the new house,” Boyd adds and Erica’s eyes light up with glee when Stiles blushes.

“Damn, boys. Really?”

Stiles laughs when Derek’s cheeks turn pink too and Derek wraps an arm around Stiles’ shoulders, pulling him in close.

“I’m sorry, have you seen my fiancé? Pretty sure you’d make fun of me more if we _didn’t_ have sex all the time.”

Erica holds her hands up in surrender, knowing she’s pushed Derek to his edge of being embarrassed in a public place. They shift the conversation to work and how everyone has been. Things have been calm all around for Erica. Not many fires or accidents or call outs in general where an ambulance was needed. Boyd finished a book and started a new one, all while keeping their house in order and planning his gardens for the summer.

Their food comes and their conversation dwindles as they eat for a few minutes. After a while though Isaac talks about his company, how he’s glad for business being slow. Stiles’ brings up the incident at the softball fields only to watch Isaac’s expression sour.

“I hate that guy. He has younger daughters, too, that he’s just as nasty with. The youngest was in the hospital for an appendix removal. But when the doctors did a preliminary exam they found bruises that shouldn’t have been there and called me to talk to her. She said she’s just clumsy and bruises easily. But then the dad came bursting in the room spouting legal jargon and just ended up pissing me off. I’m glad you stepped in. He needed to be taken down a peg.”

Stiles sinks back into his booth seat in slight relief. It hasn’t really been weighing on him, his actions that day, and it never gave him any kind of PTSD flare up, but he still wasn’t completely sure if his actions were appropriate. Hearing Isaac confirm Stiles’ initial suspicions about what the lawyer is like at home just cemented the fact that he did what needed to be done. He did what was right in the situation.

They finish their meals and make plans to schedule in a time for all of them to help with the move. Seeing as Derek and Stiles haven’t even begun packing it won’t be for a little bit yet. They all hug each other outside the restaurant before getting in their cars to drive home.

Derek drives out of the parking lot and gets them en route to his parents to pick up Emily before he grabs Stiles hand, intertwining their fingers. It’s a short drive and Stiles jumps out to scoop a sleeping Emily off the couch, thanking Talia and Andrew for watching her for them. He carries his daughter out to the car and maneuvers her into her booster seat and buckles her in.

It’s a quiet drive home and by the time Stiles gets his daughter tucked into her bed and makes his way into his own room he is completely exhausted. Derek helps him out of his clothes for the second time that day, considerably more calmly and gently than earlier in the day. He peels off the vest while Stiles gets his pants undone and lets them pool around his ankles. It’s only another minute or two to get completely undressed and his teeth brushed before they collapse on their bed.

Stiles falls asleep before he can even mumble an, “I love you.”

>>><<< 

Derek blinks himself slowly awake then next morning. He doesn’t expect to be hung over, and he isn’t, but the beers from last night have him tired and fuzzy even as he continues to wake up. He stretches out and relishes the feeling even as he hears more than one joint pop. He refuses to admit that it means he’s aging. He rolls over hoping to curl himself around his fiancé’s trim waist.

Instead he finds the other half of the bed empty and the sheets cold.

Before he has long to pout about waking up alone, he takes a breath in and smiles. The smell of fresh brewed coffee and frying bacon has wafted up the stairs and Derek is suddenly a little more awake. Few things are better than waking up with Stiles at his side or wrapped up in each other’s arms. But Stiles’ breakfasts are an almost as good a thing to wake up to.

As he shuffles himself towards their bathroom he thinks he should probably feel bad about the comparison. Comparing his fiancé and waking up in his arms to food is probably offensive but, whoever out there is judging him for his thoughts, hasn’t had Stiles’ French toast.

As he walks down the stairs into the kitchen his hopes are confirmed. Stiles is at the stove watching what Derek knows is bacon, eggs and French toast as it all cooks. Emily is sitting at the table that’s already been set with plates and cups and silverware. There’s fruit and yogurt and all the sides they need for the French toast like butter and maple syrup on the table as well.

Derek pads into the kitchen wearing his fluffiest socks and kisses Emily on the forehead as he walks past. She doesn’t even falter in her retelling of the previous day’s adventures with her grandparents. He hears Stiles ‘hmm’ when she does pause letting her know he’s still listening even as he transfers the sizzling bacon to a plate.

Derek sidles up behind Stiles and wraps his arms around his waist smoothly tucking his head into Stiles’ neck. He presses a kiss there and doesn’t suppress his quiet laugh when Stiles jumps in surprise.

“Oh!” Stiles exclaimed, before bringing a hand up to pat at where Derek’s arms are crossed on his stomach. 

"Morning, sleepy," Stiles says fondly and Derek can hear the smile in his voice.

"Morning," Derek mumbles before he kisses Stiles’ neck again, it’s the only part he can reach.

“Sorry I scared you."

Stiles does turn then and Derek lifts his head so they can kiss chastely before smiling contentedly at each other.

"S'ok. Wanna grab the juice? Everything is ready."

Derek nods tiredly and turns to the fridge while Stiles transfers the food from the stove to the table. Emily has finished her story by the time they’re all seated and all the food is on the table. The kitchen goes quiet then for a few minutes as they all enjoy their food. After Stiles has gone through his French toast and his eggs he looks up at Emily.

“What do you want to do today, Emmy?”

She takes another bite of eggs and gets this adorable look on her face as she contemplates all the options she has and tries to decide how to spend the day. Derek smiles as he takes another bite of his breakfast watching her swallow and answer confidently.

“Spa day? But like, maybe not all the stuff. We could just go get out nails painted?”

Stiles' answering smile doesn't fully reach his eyes and Derek notices. 

"Sure!"

Derek knows this is a thing they do. Well, it's a thing that Emily and Allison and Stiles have done a few times in the past. They've done full spa days and simple mani pedi days. Derek really doesn't care one way or another if his fiancé has his nails painted. He himself hasn't been invited yet to join them mainly because he either was at work or away for a conference when they would go. 

The issue Derek has with this plan is because of what happened the last time Stiles went with the girls and ended up with his nails done. 

Stiles is strong. Derek has spent a lot of time getting to know every inch of Stiles' body. He has many favorite parts. From the veins on Stiles' forearms that smooth up into his defined biceps to his broad shoulders and his washboard abs, Stiles is beautiful in his strength. Derek feels safe wrapped up in Stiles' arms both as little spoon and with his face buried in Stiles' chest. Even when Derek gets to be the one holding Stiles, there is no way to ignore how much space the man occupies. He's big and strong and brave and kind and loving.

And knowing so intimately the extent that Stiles is all those things made it hurt that much more acutely seeing it all stripped away. 

 Stiles had just started working at the bakery again and had been there a full month when he didn't come home one day. Derek had waited until well after the bakery closed to panic. He had called and left voicemails but the calls and text messages went unanswered. When Stiles wasn't home by 6 o'clock and Derek was feeding only himself and Emily, he decided to call John. A quick cell phone GPS trace and Derek was diving across town in the rain to drop Emily with Talia and then on to the cemetery where Stiles was. 

Derek had considered leaving him there to work out whatever memory his brain had taken him to. But John assured him there were no anniversaries or birthdays or favorite holidays pending. There was no reason for Stiles to be where he was and to not be answering his phone. 

He had parked his SUV and stared at the rain for a minute or two wishing it would stop. When it didn't he pulled their big umbrella out from the back seat and got out into the damp weather. Derek found Stiles sitting on a bench at the top of a hill, shoulders slumped, clothes soaked, umbrella closed and leaning against the bench next to him. 

Derek had never seen Stiles appear so small nor so vulnerable. 

Derek had coaxed a silent Stiles back to the vehicle and driven him home. Only after Derek led Stiles to the shower, peeled off their wet clothing and got in with him did the story come out. In the hot steamy closeness of the shower Stiles had explained in a small voice why he was so upset, so hurt. 

Stiles had let Emily pick out a color for his nails the previous weekend when they went out with Allison. And over the course of the previous week at work Stiles had dealt with both amusement and smiles as well as derision and sneers for his blue finger nails. He had told Derek how the glares and put downs grew into full on harassment that had Stiles calling a deputy to the bakery to deal with the man. Derek just stood and held Stiles under the warm spray of water wishing he didn't know exactly how Stiles was feeling in that moment. 

In a town as small as Beacon Hills it's fairly normal for people to have a 'live and let live' attitude. But just like anywhere else there will always be closed minded people fearing what they don't understand. New York was worse for Derek in dealing with homophobia. But his worst moment was having a parent transfer their kid out of his class once they found out he dated men and women. 

As it was, they simply held on to each other until Stiles was warm again and they got out and toweled off. Derek got them both dressed in sweat pants, fuzzy socks and soft long sleeve shirts. Then they settled in on the couch which ended up with Stiles laying on the bottom and Derek laying on top of him as they held each other. 

Emily ended up staying the night at Derek's parents' house while Stiles took some time to recover emotionally and mentally from the near week long harassment. 

That was the last time they went and got their nails done. And Derek doesn't want Stiles to have to deal with anything like he did then. He doesn't really have to worry about it though because in the next moment Stiles' smile is completely genuine as he looks at Derek. 

It's only then that Derek realizes he's dropped his hand on Stiles' leg in an unconscious attempt at offering comfort. 

"That sounds like a good plan, this time though I get to pick what we do on my finger nails. You can still pick out what we do on my toes, though, if you want."

Emily shrugs unaffected and Derek half sighs in relief at the issue becoming a nonissue so easily.

"Okay, dad you're coming too right?" She asks turning to look at Derek who smiles happily at her invitation. 

"Definitely! But you'll have to explain what they're doing, I've never done it before."

She gasps in shock. 

"Never?"

Derek shakes his head and that’s how the three of them end up in the nearest nail salon soon after they finish cleaning up from breakfast.

Sitting in the big massage chairs is a new experience for Derek. But while Stiles and Emily simply relax into it he can’t keep himself from watching them or his technician. He has this thing about people touching his feet but Stiles said it would be fine to just get a manicure done. So while he sits there with his shoes on he has to watch Stiles and Emily get their feet massaged before their technicians start working on their nails. He’s jealous for a minute until his technician does the same thing to his hands and forearms.

It feels wonderful.

Slowly but surely he lets himself relax into the pampering and the comfortable chair. With Emily in between himself and Stiles their easy conversation had eventually tapered off. It’s a surprise, then, when Emily just blurts out.

“Am I ever going to have a brother or a sister?”

Derek sits forward in his chair and watches Stiles do the same; they look at each other before both turning to look at Emily.

“Would you be okay with having siblings?” Stiles asks gently but Emily just nods with enthusiasm.

“What brought this up?” Derek inquires just as curious and softly.

“Well, you guys saw Mr. Isaac last night. He helps kids get new families, right? Can’t we do that?”

Stiles looks about as puffed up with pride and teary eyed as Derek feels. They both just stare at her in stunned silence before she’s nervously looking between the two of them. She starts to fidget in confusion but Stiles reaches a hand out and grabs her arm to get her attention.

“I think that we need to talk about this some more when we get home, but, yes. Derek and I have been thinking that with the new house, and the added space, that if we found someone who needed a family that we’d bring them into ours.”

Derek let Stiles handle the conversation and eventually steering it towards a more trivial direction. Mainly because he was getting lost in his thoughts. Much like his worries about Emily calling him dad, Derek has had concerns about this too.

The short of it is Derek has insecurities. Probably always will. But before he can totally lose himself to thinking about the what ifs and the could happens he remembers Stiles' words the morning after Emily called Derek dad the first time. 

 

He remembers soft words of reassurance and even softer kisses filled with so much love and tenderness it was almost overwhelming. 

 

He tunes back in to the conversation Stiles and Emily are having about going to the bookstore for more books. Content in the knowledge that Emily wants to add to their family, Derek tries to stifle his worries knowing that whatever happens, Stiles will be at his side to work through whatever they face, together. 

 

**June 2 nd **

Stiles waits for Derek and Emily to leave him home alone before he texts Isaac to come over. It’s a little cowardly and a lot selfish but he just needs one more talk with Isaac before he approaches the subject with Derek.

After Stiles got to the hospital things happened really quickly. He lost track of Derek once Stiles got his own gurney and told the doctor that it was a gunshot wound, partially treated in the field. The doctor had the nurses leave the bandage as it was while they wheeled him through the hospital towards the surgical floor. When the elevator door opened there was already another patient on a bed like Stiles’ in there so just one nurse rode with Stiles while the rest of the personnel used another elevator or the stairs to get to the next floor.

Stiles’ heart broke a little seeing the little girl on the bed next to him with a broken arm and bruises on her legs.

She couldn’t have been older than four and Stiles was almost immediately smitten. Despite her injuries the girl hadn’t been shy to talk with him. She was quick to smile and gush about her favorite comic character when Stiles complimented her Batman scrub shirt. Their short conversation had ended with Stiles needing to go to surgery and the girl heading towards recovery. But he knew her name.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth Weber.

It was the name Stiles gave Isaac the moment he saw him when the whole group of Stiles’ and Derek’s friends arrived. Isaac had recognized the last name but wouldn’t tell Stiles why. He understood, to a degree, but Stiles wanted to know more about why such a tiny little girl was sporting such multicolored bruises.

Instead of continuing to push Isaac for more, he’d simply insisted on talking to him later about the situation. Isaac had reluctantly agreed and so now Stiles was waiting for him to come over. He’s been posted on the living room couch and since coming home from the hospital. He can move around pretty good already but the stairs still pose a problem so he’s been living on the first floor for the last few days.

Isaac texts him when he pulls up so Stiles has enough time to shuffle himself to the front door. Isaac still beats him to the door so Stiles just shouts for him to come in and turns back around, heading back to the couch.

“Dude, I texted you so you’d be awake, not so you could let me in,” Isaac chastises after he walks in and sees Stiles hobbling through the house.

Stiles laughs when Isaac walks up next to him and holds his arm to guide him back to his seat.

“Come on, old man, let’s get you back to your spot on the couch in front of the TV.”

Stiles smacks him lightly as he eases himself back down onto the couch.

“Old man? I’m younger than you!”

Isaac laughs easily at him as he sits next to Stiles on the couch.

“Fine, fine. I notice Derek isn’t here for this conversation. Don’t you think he’s going to have to know?”

Stiles sobers as he gets his leg propped up on a couple pillows before he turns to Isaac.

“Of course, he’s going to know,” Stiles assures him seriously. “Just, I figured we could talk about it so I had some, you know, specifics to bring him.”

“You mean specifics beyond telling him that you fell in love with a little girl and want to adopt her?”

‘Uh, yeah?” Stiles says sarcastically, annoyed when Isaac smiles and huffs another laugh.

“Stiles, you don’t think he already knows that you form attachments to anyone who will talk about comic books with you?”

“Fine, maybe I didn’t want to get both of our hopes up before I knew what the situation was really like!”

Isaac finally realizes how serious Stiles is being at his outburst and Stiles watches his expression grow serious.

“I’m sorry, Stiles. I shouldn’t have made light of this. Especially because you were, well, not wrong. I knew her name because I had to help place her and her older brother with foster parents three years ago. She doesn’t remember, but her brother was five, he could still have memories of their mother dropping them off at daycare and never returning.”

“They were abandoned?”

“Yeah,” Isaac confirms as he pulls a picture out of his pocket. “The boy, Ben, they found some questionable bruising when the two were brought to the hospital to be checked out. They called me but from what I could get from a five year old made it seem more like neglect and less like out and out abuse.”

Stiles fidgets with the picture nervously, recognizing the little girl in the photograph. The boy, who looks a little familiar, looks to be close to Emily’s age. He just had a gut feeling about the girl and the way she didn’t talk about her ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ like Emily did when she was four. She’d gushed about a Ben, her brother Stiles knows now, and how he would read the comic books to her. But since she didn’t talk about or mention a parent of any kind, Stiles wonders what the last three years have been like for her and her brother.

“They were placed in foster care immediately. But a majority of the registered foster parents in Beacon Hills are, well, not elderly, but not exactly young either,” Isaac continued to explain like he’d read Stiles’ mind. “Their first set of foster parents lasted just under a year before they admitted that Elizabeth had too much energy to keep watching them. They got passed to another foster home for another year before getting passed along to the one they’re at now. But…it’s more of the same. Elizabeth is just a bubbly, energetic four-year-old and Ben is quiet and very protective of her. And foster parents aren’t meant to be long term either.”

“So they _are_ up for adoption then?”

Isaac looks at him a little warily, probably concerned at how obvious it is that Stiles already has his hopes up.

“Yes, they are. But I have no kind of sway with the adoption agency, Stiles. I won’t be able to really help you when you and Derek start that process. And I _really_ think you need to just tell him, Stiles.”

He looks at Stiles sharply.

“ _Before_ you go to the adoption agency for more ‘specifics.’”

Stiles slumps back against the couch and fiddles with the hem of his t-shirt with one hand as he looks back at the photo. He knows Isaac is right. He can’t and shouldn’t hide this from Derek any more than he already has. But now he just can’t stop picturing Elizabeth and her brother here in their house. Safe and loved and taken care of. He can already picture Emily and Elizabeth playing together, Stiles bringing Ben out of his shell as they talk about comics. He can already see Derek out in the yard teaching the three of them to play baseball and how to swim in the pool.

Stiles pulls himself together enough to thank Isaac for coming over and see him out the door. Even as he limps himself through the house to the pantry in the kitchen he calls Dominos. He orders himself a large pizza with everything on it, a side of breadsticks and a side of chicken wings. As soon as he’s finished reciting his address and credit card details he hangs up and shoves his phone in his pocket. It frees up his hands to grab the zebra cakes and the Cool Ranch Doritos. He has to walk past the fridge to get to the living room anyway so he grabs a bottle of water, a bottle of Gatorade and the jar of queso before he carries it all back to the living room dumping it all on the coffee table.

When Derek comes home an hour later Stiles is shoving his fifth slice of pizza in his mouth. Stiles watches Derek hesitate only slightly in the doorway before coming into the living room and seating himself on the couch next to Stiles. Derek pulls the container of wings towards him and Stiles can see on his face that he’s gathering his thoughts.

“You know, when I first met you, I would have never guessed you were an eat-your-feelings type. I’m actually impressed your metabolism is still what it is.”

Stiles almost smirks, he knows what Derek is thinking about. Derek kind of likes to…admire and appreciate Stiles’ six pack. He’s completely warm for Stiles’ toned and muscular form. It’s adorable.

But that’s beside the point.

Derek tosses the container back on the coffee table after eating what was left of the wings and scoots closer to Stiles on the couch.

“Rough day?” he asks quietly and Stiles nods.

“Yeah, and I think I’d like to talk about it.”

Derek looks at him surprised, and Stiles knows he’s thinking it’s about Matt. So Stiles shakes his head at him a little and reaches out to hold Derek’s hand.

“It’s not about Daehler. I- I’m ready to talk about Daehler whenever _you_ are. But this,” he points at the pile of wrappers and residual junk food, “this is something different.”

Derek sits up a little straighter but doesn’t pull away or pull his hand from Stiles’ hold.

“I have a feeling,” Derek starts slowly, picking his words, “this ‘something different’ is pretty big and important. But, I’d rather we talk through what happened with Matt first since we’re both willing.”

Stiles nods in agreement. Especially since he knows that once they start talking about adoption that will be their focus going forward. Might as well deal with everything that happened that day so they can put it behind them. Or try to at least.

“Okay, I’ll agree to that,” Stiles approves quietly. “You want to go first or me?”

“I can. You said, when you got me in the car you said first time kidnapping victim beats battle seasoned veteran.”

“I wasn’t-“

“That wasn’t the first time I’d been kidnapped.”

Stiles stops short hearing that. Suddenly he doesn’t think he’s as ready as he thought he was for this conversation anymore.

“My mom’s family has a reputation and the Argent family has always…taken issue with the Hale family. When I was sixteen I was kidnapped, bound to a wall and told that my family had burned to death in our house. Obviously, my whole family didn’t die, just my little brother. But for a few hours I thought that everyone was dead and I was helpless to do anything about it. I couldn’t save myself let alone my family.”

Stiles pulls Derek closer so they’re pressed against each other. Derek puts his big, warm, sure hand on Stiles’ thigh above the bandage and Stiles leans his head against Derek’s shoulder.

“When Matt took me, I was incapable of doing anything to prevent him from taking me. But I was able to keep him from hurting Emily. That was the most important thing. And I knew, since he never knocked me out and he never left the building once he brought me there, that you were okay too. I knew, no matter what Emily was okay and as long as I just waited out the crazy man, you’d come and get me. I still was fairly uncomfortable being so helpless but I know that even if I did know some self-defense I still wouldn’t have been able to do much with a gun pointed at my face.”

Stiles’ breath hitches and his grip on Derek’s arm where he’d curled his hand around Derek’s forearm tightens.

“He didn’t hurt me,” Derek reassures, “the only time he hit me was when you were there to watch. It all affected me, don’t get me wrong. But, we’re all still here. You’re okay, Emily is okay, I’m okay. We all made it through without losing anyone.”

Derek shrugs.

“I don’t think it will be too hard to just, keep moving forward now that it’s over. At least for me. We haven’t talked how you’re doing with all this.”

Stiles nods a little and moves his hand from holding Derek’s arm to holding his hand again.

“I’m just so glad you’re okay,” Stiles admits. “We talked about what it would be like to go back to base or see people from my old unit. I didn’t anticipate to think about how I would feel running another operation. I don’t know how to really explain it. It just, I couldn’t get anxious. I knew he had you and Emily. I knew what was happening and what needed to go down to get you back.”

“Maybe it just shows how much of a control freak I am but knowing what was going on from all angles put me right back in Army mode. And- it felt _good_ , Derek. Don’t think that I wasn’t concerned or nervous for your safety and Emily’s safety, that’s not it at all. I just wasn’t _panicking._ I don’t think it gave me closure either, not really."

He pauses for a moment before he shares the next part, completely unsure of how Derek is going to react.

“Because, part of the contract I signed to be reinstated included an agreement to teach a class for a week next month. In the heat of the moment I had to agree with it so I could be the one to deal with Matt and get you back. But after the fact.”

Stiles pauses again and shakes his head a little, not paying attention to whatever kind of look Derek is giving him.

“I’m kind of excited to go back, like this. I wouldn’t have agreed if they’d been requiring active service again. But this is a reservists type position and if I like teaching the class they’d give me the option to continue being a reservist and teaching once every two months. And since the base is within driving distance I could drive back and forth during the week. I think, the bakery was a good option in the temporary. But, well.”

He gestures to the food again.

“Once I tell you about what this is about it will make more sense why I’m leaning towards accepting their offer.”

When Stiles finally looks up at Derek his brow is furrowed and he looks confused.

“That really wasn’t was I was anticipating to hear,” Derek starts. “I’m very glad that it didn’t trigger anything for you, or make your PTSD worse in any way. I don’t really understand how you’re thinking about going back. Just from what we’ve talked about, you said you were glad to be done. So it’s a little surprising that you’d be so quick to want to make this change.”

“I know it’s…unexpected. I wasn’t lying to you back then, when we went through the journal. I am glad to be done fighting. I don’t want to go back and put myself in danger. Not now. Not now that I have Emily and you and our life we’re building, together. But…the army has been my life for so long, it just, this feels like the right decision. The marines always say there’s no such thing as an ex-marine. But I think it works for Army Rangers too.”

“Okay, I believe you weren’t lying, I didn’t mean that. It just feels like this is coming out of nowhere a little. But if it’s something you’re comfortable with and want to consider I’d be willing to try and get used to the idea.”

Stiles sighs in relief.

“So, what has you eating like a drunk college student?”

Derek raises a judgmental eyebrow and Stiles laughs lightly.

“Well…”

Stiles goes into all the details about what happened to him at the hospital and how he met Elizabeth. He tells Derek how he just had a gut feeling about the girl and how Isaac had recognized her name but wouldn’t tell him anything. He tells Derek what Isaac found out, that her and her brother had been neglected and abandoned. That the boy is Emily’s age and Elizabeth is four almost five years old. Stiles pulls the picture out of his pocket and shows Derek the kids.

“Dealing with Matt didn’t change anything, I still want to keep moving forward with expanding our family. If these kids work out? Great. If not, I am willing to wait. I didn’t look into this to try and, and force your hand in any way. If you want to wait until we’re married,” Stiles takes a deep breath in and lets it out, “I will wait.”

Derek laughs a little, obviously amused by something Stiles said.

“That took a lot of effort, didn’t it? You want to find out more about these kids,” he waves the photo at Stiles, “tomorrow, Stiles.”

Stiles doesn’t laugh. His chest tightens a little as he looks back down at his hands. Maybe he’s just taking their tone the wrong way but having both Isaac and Derek tease him about this stings more than it should. Yeah, he’s a softie. Heather always told him he had a big heart, his mom did too.

Something about Elizabeth reminded him of Emily when she was four. Her bright eyes and easy smile just tugged on his heart and he can’t help it if he wants to be the one to give her and her brother a family.

“Hey,” Derek says softly, shifting on the couch and wrapping his arms around Stiles’ stiff shoulders.

“That took a lot of effort to say,” he repeats but instead of teasing it’s sincere.

Stiles sniffs and nods once.

“Okay,” Derek continues, “why don’t you tell me what plan you have rolling around in your head already?”

“She was so small,” Stiles says voice tight and eyes burning. “Isaac said they’d been neglected. What if part of that was they were malnourished? She just, all I could see was Emily at that age and I couldn’t imagine Emily in a situation like that.” He looks up at Derek hoping he can keep from crying. “If I’d died, and I didn’t have my dad and she ended up in foster care with people who only did it for the money or the temporary help. Not being invested in her life and I just, I wanted to bring her home.”

He’s looking back at his hands when a tear falls and lands on his shirt. But now that he’s started he can’t stop.

“I want to bring her and her brother to a home. Where we’ll love them and care about them and take the time to really appreciate that Ben is quiet and be able to match Elizabeth’s energy. I want to furnish the rooms across from ours and take them shopping for paint and stuff to put on the walls and comforters and pillows. I want you and Emily to meet them and like them. And if I take the job teaching on base I could quit the bakery and still be contributing to paying the bills. And if I take the base job I’d be home a lot more to make up for having two more kids in the house who will no doubt have activities and need running around town. And I want your family to like them and approve of the plan so when I’m gone teaching I don’t have to feel guilty about your family or my dad helping to watch three kids instead of just Emily. And then once they’re settled I want to set a date for the wedding. I want to be your husband and have our family here in this house. I just, I finally feel like I know what direction my life is going and how I want to move forward and I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to lose this feeling of knowing what to do.”

Mid rant when Stiles’ tears hadn’t been stoppable anymore Derek just pulled him closer so he was leaning against Derek’s chest and Derek could run his fingers through Stiles hair. He doesn’t say anything when Stiles finishes just lets Stiles calm down a little first before trying to tackle answering any of what he just spouted. Once his breathing is steady Derek reaches forward and grabs a couple napkins from the coffee table and Stiles blows his nose and wipes at his damp cheeks.

Emily walks through the front door a minute later, with John on her heels. Derek doesn’t shift Stiles off his chest when the pair walk into the living room and just opens his arm to Emily when her face pinches in concern.

“What happened now? Are you okay, dad?” she asks as she crawls up next to Derek.

She reaches out a hand and puts it on Stiles’ face, like she’s making sure he knows she’s there. Just like they do when she’s upset. But Stiles still can’t find his voice yet, even after his dad sits in the chair next to the couch clearly waiting for an explanation.

“Everything is okay, Emmy,” Derek clarifies, “Your dad just has a really big heart. And an awful lot of love to share.”

Stiles rises and falls with Derek’s chest as he takes a deep breath.

“And right now he wants to share some of that with these kids.”

Stiles peeks up at Emily’s face as Derek lifts the picture up for her to see. He studiously ignores his father in favor of watching his daughter’s reaction. He doesn’t expect her to point at it in recognition.

“Is that Ben? He’s in my class this year. He’s nice, kinda quiet but nice all the same.”

Stiles curses his injured leg and buries his face in Derek’s side where his dad and daughter can’t see the tears that have started again. He can’t run away and all he wants is to leave the room and take a moment to sort through the abundance of emotions currently rushing through him by himself. Derek just cups his hand around the back of Stiles’ head and lets him hide.

“Dad?”

Stiles feels Emily’s little fingers curl the hair around his ear but Derek’s the one who answers.

“He’s okay, Emily. Just having a lot of feelings.”

“And we all know how much he hates dealing with those.”

Despite the situation, Stiles sobs out a laugh at his father’s words. Around him, his family talks about what they’re going to do for supper. He hears his dad stand and feels Emily leave the couch. He listens to them walk into the kitchen while Derek just runs his fingers through Stiles’ hair.

“Okay, whats say I help you upstairs so you can take a sponge bath and change your clothes before you settle into our bed for tonight. We’re going to let all these thoughts and feelings settle for the evening and we’re going to talk about it more tomorrow.”

Stiles nods and Derek helps get them both upright and then throws Stiles’ arm over Derek’s shoulder to help him over to the stairs. They both pause and just look at the staircase and Stiles wonders if he can even make it all the way up without jarring his leg.

“Piggyback?” Derek asks with a smile.

Stiles just nods tiredly and Derek crouches down in front of him so Stiles can get on. Derek stands easily and wraps his arms under Stiles’ legs holding him in place.

“Bet you’re glad you didn’t skip leg day now, huh?” Stiles teases as Derek climbs the flight of stairs.

They make it to the top and Derek doesn’t let Stiles down until they’re in their bathroom. Stiles peels his shirt off and starts untying the drawstring on his sweats when Derek comes back over with a washcloth and crowds Stiles against the sink.

“I lied. I need to tell you one more thing before I go get your supper and bring it back up.”

Derek makes Stiles keep eye contact as he searches his face for what, Stiles doesn’t know.

“If it comes down to it, if you don’t want to work at the bakery _or_ work on base you don’t need to. If you wanted to be a stay at home dad with whatever kids we adopt I would be happy. I’m never going to feel that you’re ‘mooching’ off the trust fund. I just want you to do what makes you happy, regardless of how much money it makes.”

Stiles just stares at Derek for a moment before he pulls up a coherent thought.

“I will…try to accept that mindset. But I won’t promise it will happen by the time we have our conversation tomorrow.”

Derek smirks a little and kisses Stiles’ forehead.

“I’ll accept that.”

Stiles smiles at his fiancé and watches him walk out of the bathroom. His mind is still swirling with all his emotions from the last few hours. He drops his pants and his boxers and starts to wipe off with a warm soapy cloth. He doesn’t know where everything is going to go from here. But as he rinses and dries himself off he can’t help but put it all from his mind.

He manages to get a clean pair of underwear on as well as a pair of basketball shorts and a clean t-shirt before he eases himself onto the bed with relish. It’s been days since he slept in his bed with Derek and now that he’s there he doesn’t want to leave again.

Eventually Derek and Emily come up to the master bedroom, the food for the three of them in hand. They eat together and talk about how their days were and what their plans are for tomorrow. Stiles is feeling more than content with his life when he falls asleep a few hours later. Lying there in Derek’s arms he realizes that things aren’t going to stay as they are now forever. And that might just be a good thing.

 

**March 2 nd **

Stiles has been pacing in the bedroom. He has his bank statements and credit card statements and pay stubs from the bakery and bills from Dr. Johnson and it just isn’t going to add up. How have he and Derek never talked about money? It just baffles him sometimes.

But then he remembers how exactly their relationship started and he understands a little bit. Because he was hardly in a place, mentally and emotionally, to be worrying about money. And besides, at that point, that Army was still helping with things like his medical expenses and then his dad was still mostly caring for/feeding his daughter.

So even though it’s been months of living together they haven’t sat down and talked about if Stiles should help pay the mortgage. Or if Derek needs Stiles to get the groceries more often than he does or really anything about their finances.

Emily finds him sitting on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed with papers strewn out around him. There’s an empty bag of Doritos next to him and he’s got a mostly full bag between his legs that he snacks from in between bites of ice cream. He’s completely engrossed in the numbers and his misery when he notices her.

“Okay,” Emily says, drawing the vowels out.

He looks up at her wide eyed and concerned expression. Before he can even say anything she thumbs behind her.

“I’m gonna go get Derek.”

He nods silently and she leaves to go find him. Stiles doesn’t move, doesn’t even try to stop his current course of action. After a minute, he hears the door close and listens to Derek’s footsteps shuffle closer. He doesn’t disturb the papers, Derek just walks in and steps carefully past them towards the bed.

Derek gets them situated so he’s sitting on the bed and his knees bracket Stiles’ shoulders. He puts his big, warm hands on Stiles’ neck and shoulders and leans down to peer at the papers. He reads for a moment before he reaches down and grabs the full bag of chips; taking it away from Stiles and putting it on the bed next to him.

“What are we looking at?”

Stiles slumps his shoulders but Derek starts moving his hands, massaging instead of resting and he can’t help but lean back in to it.

“My complete inability to finance our future and the plans we were talking about.”

Derek just hums and Stiles snaps out of his haze of relaxation Derek’s hands tend to put him in. He slaps them away from his shoulders and stands up gathering the papers all together as he goes.

“No, not ‘hmm,’ I’m serious Derek. We never talk about money. What is the mortgage payment on this house? Or the utilities? All I know is that I pay for groceries when I go or if I’m shopping for Emily. How are we going to afford a new house? Or adopting kids? Do you know how expensive that is? Unless I suddenly am able to become a police officer and make a little more money I just don’t see how we can do any of the things we want to.”

“You done?” Derek asks, like Stiles didn’t just outline why he’s going to fail at building their future.

“Stiles we actually haven’t been able to talk about finances until we got engaged.”

Uh what?

“But you’re right. Your job at the bakery and my teaching salary won’t be enough to adopt more kids or buy a bigger house.”

He pauses and Stiles just kind of deflates. But then Derek continues.

“But my trust fund can.”

Stiles snaps his head up so fast he cricks his neck. His _what?_

“Your _what?_ ”

His face must look all sorts of shocked and confused because Derek just laughs at him before he stands and slowly approaches him. He allows himself to be pulled back towards the bed and lets Derek take the papers from his grasp and sit them down next to each other.

“The Hale family has what you would call, old money. Add onto that the fact that my mom is a high powered lawyer and my dad is an investment banker and I have more money to my name than I know what to do with. We want a new house? We can do that. Want to adopt ten more kids? We can do that too. Hell, if you said you wanted a beach house in Malibu to spend a couple weekends a year in I’d probably be game for that too.”

Stiles is appropriately shocked silent. He just- it makes sense, in a weird way. But he still can’t believe this is his life. Seriously he’d like to know what Derek’s flaws are. He should have found some by now in their relationship. Derek doesn’t really need a response from him it seems because he just pulls Stiles into his arms and they lay back on the bed.

“I know it’s a, a big thing to find out, but it doesn’t change anything. I couldn’t tell you before this because it’s actually a rule on the trust that only family members or spouses know about it. I mean people in town know we’re all rich but they don’t actually know the half of it.”

Stiles lets the sound of Derek’s voice calm him down and he’s able to finally wrap his mind around the fact that he’s marrying someone who apparently has oodles of money. He lets out a laugh he refuses to call nervous.

“So you’re rich.”

“Yep.”

“And you don’t care that I’m not.”

He says it like it’s a fact. It’s not a question really at all. He loves Derek, Derek loves him.

“Nope,” Derek responds with a smile, popping the ‘p’. “So we can start looking for both houses and getting through the adoption process any time now. Money won’t be a problem for the foreseeable future.”

Of all the things for Derek to have been keeping from him, the fact that he’s got money out the ass and Stiles won’t ever have to worry about money again was not something he anticipated. And not only that but being able to bring kids who are in need of a family into their family without having the worries about being able to support them is pretty close to the best thing in the world.

**May 30 th **

Derek can’t really believe this is his life. A few days ago he was helping Stiles recover physically and emotionally from the ordeal with Daehler. He thought he had a long road ahead of him helping Stiles because Derek was sure that Stiles was going to have renewed PTSD problems and a new sense of guilt for what had happened to Emily and Derek.

Instead, it seems, that Stiles is almost completely fine. Aside from forming some sort of connection with the little girl he shared an elevator with for five minutes, Stiles is fine.

The morning after Stiles’ emotional word vomit occurred they had another, less emotion driven discussion about the matter. Stiles explained more about where his head was at when he signed the reinstatement forms and where he’s at now. Derek couldn’t help but understand that Stiles would want to avoid any feelings of guilt of living off Hale money by having a job.

And really, it doesn’t take a genius to know that in a way, this is Stiles’ way of coping and moving forward. When they closed on the house over a month ago, they only waited a few days before they started doing the paperwork to apply and be approved by Beacon Hills’ adoption agency. It took a few weeks but eventually they were approved and had their home study done.

And really, if the whole Daehler thing hadn’t happened, Stiles and Derek _would_ be meeting kids in foster care or potential birth mothers. All this did was give Stiles something to focus on instead of fixating on the fact that their family of three had all been hurt by Daehler in some manner or another.

When Derek told Stiles this, that part of his attachment was a coping mechanism, Stiles wasn’t surprised or offended.

He had just looked at Derek like he was crazy and said, “You’re not wrong, but we’re not putting that down if we have to redo our home study.”

Derek had laughed and pulled Stiles into a quick embrace. They decided they would wait until the following Monday, four more days, before they would call the agency about the Weber kids.

Now it’s Tuesday and they’ve talked with the adoption agency. They called right away in the morning on Monday when the four days of waiting did nothing to diminish their excitement.  Not only did they get news that the siblings were still up for adoption but they were able to set up an official meeting for the end of the week.

They didn’t even have time to get anxious over that fact because Derek got to meet Ben when he just happened to pick Emily up from her classroom for once since it was the last day of school. It wasn’t too suspicious because Derek’s kindergarten class had ‘graduated’ the previous Friday so he was only there wrapping up paper work for the year. But then to add to it all, Stiles and Elizabeth saw each other in the waiting room for their mutual check-up appointments.

So now it’s Tuesday and school is out for the summer and Stiles and Derek and Emily are driving to Derek’s parent’s house for a family meeting.

Again, how is this Derek’s life.

Two weeks after being taken hostage and watching a man die Derek is meeting with his family about plans to adopt two kids.

While Derek is approaching this dinner as a way to announce their plans, Stiles, Derek is sure, is viewing this as a discussion. They’re having dinner with Derek’s parents, Stiles’ dad, and Melissa. Derek would have included his siblings too but figures they can find out later anyway. It’s not as important as telling their parents and parental figures that they’re growing their family.

Derek pulls up to his childhood home and he and Stiles exchange a look when they see they’re the last to arrive. The three of them get out of the car, Emily running ahead to get in a few words with Nana Talia before she’s left in the living room with a movie while the adults talk in the kitchen.

Derek reaches out to hold Stiles’ hand as they walk up the steps of the front porch, and sends him a reassuring smile before they walk through the door.

“So what is it boys?”

Melissa asks as soon as greetings have been exchanged.

“Well,” he looks at Stiles, giving him the chance to be the one to tell. But Stiles smiles weakly and nods at him so Derek turns back with a grin and says, “In an effort to firmly put the Daehler ordeal behind us, Stiles and I are moving forward with adopting two kids. They’re brother and sister from right here in Beacon Hills and…from what we know of them will fit right in with our family.”

He takes in the smiling, encouraging faces staring at him and Stiles and squeezes Stiles’ hand a little.

“We have an official meeting with them on Friday.”

Their parents all move forward and Stiles gets pulled into his dad’s arms while Talia hugs Derek fiercely. Almost as soon as John pulls back Derek’s mom detaches herself from him and nearly throws herself at Stiles, wrapping her arms around his shoulders tightly.

“I’m so happy for you both. Siblings? Two more kids? That’s just _wonderful_. Are you going to keep working at the bakery? Will you need someone to watch the kids ever? I was already planning on pulling back to half time this year anyway. If I want to retire at all I have to see if Laura can handle the firm by herself at some point. I’ll do it sooner rather than later though if it means I can help watch new grandkids.”

Stiles looks a little shocked and a lot overwhelmed by Talia’s rapid fire questions and thoughts. Derek sees John stifle a laugh and Melissa smile indulgently at the scene in front of her. But Derek doesn’t want Stiles to be overwhelmed so he walks up and puts a hand on his mom’s shoulder, pulling her back a little so Stiles has some of his personal bubble back.

“I actually have a secondary announcement that, kind of, answers some of that,” Stiles responds slowly before Derek can say anything.

Talia pulls back and the collective of parents looks a little concerned at Stiles’ tight, worried expression. Which only feeds Stiles’ anxiety but before Derek can even step closer to offer any form of comfort Stiles blurts it all out.

“I reenlisted,” he says quickly, and everyone freezes. “To be able to find Derek and deal with Deahler I had to sign re-enlistment forms. But there was a clause. A contingency that I had to give them a week of teaching. If I like the work they’d allow me to remain in something of a reservist position. I’d only teach on base for a week or two at a time. And to start it will always be at the base here in California. We haven’t gone over to particulars about what the job would grow to be, mainly because I haven’t given them a firm answer on the long term. But if we go through with this adoption and I take the position I’d be able to quit the bakery and be at home with the kids full time with exception to the times I’m teaching. Which, I’m told, it would only be once every couple of months. And if I do decide to do this I’d be able to both help with our household income and be at home with the kids almost completely full time.”

Talia waves a hand at him a little dismissively.

“Don’t worry about that last part, about adding income. Do whatever makes you happy. If that’s this position, great, but if it doesn’t work out you could still be a full time dad.”

“I tried-“ Derek starts before Stiles interrupts them both.

“What makes me happy is being able to contribute,” Stiles says firmly, looking pointedly at Derek and Talia.

The moment is broken by John laughing lightly and coming up to his son, clapping Stiles on the back gently.

“I swear, he got his self-sufficient, independent side from his mother.”

Stiles cracks a tense smile and elbows his dad in the ribs half-heartedly.

“Liar.”

“Well then what I’m taking away from this,” his mother smooths, “is that you _will_ be needing childcare while you’re on base and Derek’s at school.”

“I don’t want to be taking advantage, though,” Stiles adamantly stresses.

Again she waves away his concerns, just like Derek knew she would.

“Nonsense, I offered before I even knew the circumstances, how would that be taking advantage?”

She arches what Derek calls her ‘lawyer eyebrow’ at Stiles just long enough for him to sag and admit defeat.

“So, who wants to see a picture?” he asks weakly, a small genuine smile starting to form as his nerves finally start to ease.

Derek stands back and watches their parents surround Stiles to get a good look at the picture from Isaac. Emily comes into the room then and Derek picks her up, holding her on his hip. Stiles is telling the room the story about how he and Elizabeth met in the hospital and of finding out their story.

Emily and Derek watch Stiles finally lose the tension in his shoulders as he talks and sees his smile grow and soften as he tells the story, now with fondness. Emily pecks a kiss on his cheek and Derek turns to look at her, curious.

“What’s that for?”

She grabs his chin and turns his face back to look at Stiles.

“That’s his Real Smile,” she whispers.

Derek’s heart warms at her words. He figures, adding to their family is really only adding more chances for that smile to appear.

**April 1 st **

"Derek," Stiles breathes out in disbelief. There's no way-. Derek prefaced this house showing with, "I really think this is the one." They’ve looked at a handful of properties and this is the only one he’s said that about. But Stiles hadn’t thought much of it because they _just_ started looking at houses.

But this house is- it's. He puts his hand out to take the information sheet the realtor offers him. His eyes skim over the pictures of what the inside is going to look like as he searches for the information he wants. He grips the paper with both hands and turns to Derek as the realtor walks towards the front door to let them in and then wait for them to look around. Derek slides an arm around Stiles' waist and waits him out. Stiles opens his mouth to speak a couple times before the words start to tumble out. 

"Derek-" he finally gets out but it still sounds strangled. "This house is the one you want? It's- Derek this house has _six_ _bedrooms_."

He looks back at the paper again and feels his eyes go wide and disbelieving as he reads off the list.

"Six bedrooms, two and a half bath, _spacious_ gourmet kitchen, fireplace in the living room, dining room, study and a fully furnished basement. Derek," he turns the paper around for Derek to see even though Stiles knows he knows all this already he feels like he needs to reiterate because, "it has a pool, patio and hot tub not to mention the fact that our backyard is a _forest."_

Derek just smiles at him fondly and brings both his big warm hands to rub soothingly across Stiles' back. 

 _"_ What's the part that bothers you the most?" he asks calmly. "The rooms or the layout or the color?"

Stiles splutters and turns out of Derek's arms to gesture widely at the house in its entirety before turning back to face Derek. 

"This house. Is beautiful. But- just how many kids are you thinking we're going to have? Six bedrooms Derek? This house is easily twice the size of what we have now. I just-" 

He trails off and turns away again to stare at the house. It's only a moment before Derek slides right up behind him, wraps his arms around Stiles waist tightly and kisses his neck softly. 

"I didn't know how many kids we'd adopt, Stiles, but even if we have an extra room or two it doesn't hurt to have room for guests. And if we did adopt four more kids wouldn't you rather they each have their own space instead of all having to share a room or two."

Stiles feels him shrug and allows himself relax info Derek's arms. Derek hums in satisfaction. 

"Plus, I have a feeling once you see inside you're going to fall in love with it just like I did."

Stiles sighs because he knows Derek will be right. He's never imagined this for himself, any of this.

Sitting in Afghanistan, he used to hope and dream that he and Emily would get themselves an apartment or a small two or three bedroom house and he’d get to watch her grow up and he’d be a police officer and work with his dad. He dreamed about having a shower with a heat lamp outside it and a kitchen with all new appliances.

But as he wanders through the house Derek’s brought him to, he starts dreaming again.

He can see his and Derek’s bed in the master suite and Sadie’s pillow bed in the corner. He can picture Derek’s slacks and button downs filling up most of the huge walk in closet. He imagines falling asleep in a nest of pillows in the window seat on his days off work. There’s a real live claw foot tub that Stiles can’t wait to soak in and a huge shower with those crazy seven showerheads. Now _that_ shower is big enough for all sorts of adventures to happen in safely. His eyes might glaze over thinking about getting his hands on Derek in that shower until he gets a knowing smirk from the man himself and they move on to the rest of the second floor.

Five of the six (seriously, _six_ ) bedrooms are up here. His and Derek’s has windows facing south and east. Their side of the hallway has the staircase that leads up from the middle of the first floor and on the other side of the stairs is the second biggest bedroom. The other side of the house has three bedrooms all around the same size and another full bathroom. Stiles walks through each and takes in the big windows and good sized closets and pictures twin beds and posters and toys in each. Eventually Derek pulls him down to the first floor again.

The ‘study’ is really a library the previous owner compiled and left with the house when they died. There’s room enough for Derek’s desk and chair from New York though, to be added. The dining room is big enough for a huge table like Talia’s and Stiles already envisions a big farmhouse table in there. The sixth bedroom is also on the first floor but it’s smaller than all the others. Stiles’ figures that one will just end up being a guest room regardless of how many kids they adopt eventually. Mainly because he wouldn’t like having his kid on a whole separate floor and unless they really wanted it, Stiles would feel like it would be keeping them separate from the rest of the family.

Of course he falls in love with the kitchen and the living space too. The kitchen is big and bright with a big kitchen sink with a window to look out into the backyard. There’s a huge pantry space and all new appliances. The counter island in the middle has space for stools underneath and Stiles can already see Emily and Derek sitting there while Stiles makes them breakfast. The living room is just- goddammit it’s perfect. There’s room for a big sectional couch and a spot across from the fireplace for a nice big flatscreen tv.

But the best part is probably the doors that lead outside into the backyard and the pool.

Stiles starts seeing family parties and quiet evenings alone with Emily and Derek in the pool. He sees grilling for his dad and running through the trails in the preserve. They’ve been at the house for maybe an hour but Stiles doesn’t want to leave. Ever. He doesn’t want to look at a single other house. Because Derek, damn him, was right. This house is perfect and it’s the one they’re going to buy.

He lost Derek a little while ago while he went outside to inspect the outdoor kitchen on the patio and Derek had to keep conversing with the realtor. He finds himself standing staring at the forest completely relaxed and dreaming of finding kids to bring into their little family when Derek finds him again. He comes around in front of Stiles and gets this smug look on his face.

Stiles would guess he’s smug at having been proven right. But just for kicks, he asks.

“What are you so pleased with yourself for?”

Derek just shakes his head and the look softens a little as he reaches for Stiles’ left hand. He hadn’t even noticed he was playing with his ring but Derek just raises Stiles’ fingers to his lips and kisses them softly before pulling Stiles into his arms. Stiles rolls with it, happy that Derek is happy and sappy sometimes, and mirrors Derek’s actions and wraps his arms around Derek’s waist. They look like they’re about to start slow dancing and Derek leans in to kiss Stiles briefly.

“You’re happy,” he says and Stiles smiles softly at him.

He hasn’t really been carefree and content and happy since he was a teenager. And now with a dead mom, mother of his child and best friend, not to mention the tours abroad and his still lingering PTSD, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to just let go and let himself be happy.

But. Stiles has Derek. Stiles has Emily. And Stiles has his dad. He even has Allison and the twins and Derek’s friends and family too. He has a job he enjoys and Sadie to help keep him relaxed. He realized a few months back that he _is happy._ Derek makes him happy _frequently_. And Emily will always be a joy in his life.

He’s pretty lucky he found Derek. Or really, that Derek found him. Because Stiles- Stiles would have gotten to a place where he was happy with his life and got past his PTSD issues. But he doesn’t think it would have happened quite so quickly or effectively without Derek’s presence in his life. So it’s nothing to tighten his hold around Derek and nod gently in response.

“Yeah,” he breathes and Derek grins all big and sincere and beautiful.

“I find it both an honor and privilege to keep you that way,” Derek admits quietly and Stiles has to kiss him again.

“Derek you know, this house-,” he stops and starts again. “I would be happy with you and Emily in a double wide trailer or a stuffy apartment. I don’t need this mansion to be happy. You make me happy, you know that right?”

Derek leans forward and kisses him a little too long and a little too dirty for being in the middle of a house showing. And Stiles has to rest his forehead against Derek’s for a moment to catch his breath when it ends. Derek just smiles smug and dirty again before he says, “Love you too, Stiles.”

Stiles pecks his lips one more time and intertwines their fingers after they untangle their limbs from each other. As they walk back through the house one more time and Derek shows him the smaller, slightly hidden staircase in the kitchen up to the hallway outside of their bedroom they find the realtor in front of the house.

“We’d like to make an offer on this house,” Derek says all charming and confident and the woman smiles, delighted.

Stiles takes some parting glances as Derek and the lady discuss meeting at their bank and going over all the paperwork the next day. He is already dreading the packing and moving but building his future with Derek in this house, he shakes his head at himself, it’s worth it. It’s all worth it.

**June 11 th **

Stiles hasn’t been this enthusiastic to go to Target in his life. Emily is in the car with him practically vibrating with her own excitement. Not only did the first meeting go well with the Weber siblings but Stiles and Derek are already working on the paperwork to bring them home as soon as possible. But before they can bring the kids home they need to get the bedrooms put together.

When they moved in, Derek’s family had been more than a little curious that Stiles and Derek were leaving the other three bedrooms on the second floor empty. But to them, it made more sense to wait to see how many kids and what ages and their interests before trying to put together bedrooms. In addition, it was one less thing they had to worry about with the move.

It was just one less thing they had to worry about while they moved in. Between bringing in their own stuff from the old house, replacing and fixing things and getting more, new stuff and decorations for the house Stiles and Derek were busy enough.

But now they _need_ to get some things for the bedrooms. Derek is across town with his dad at the furniture store buying headboards and dressers. And after that they’re going to buy the mattresses at the place in town that makes them because they’re simply the best.

Stiles and Emily for their part are at Target getting all the basic essentials.

They’re getting sheets, blankets, pillows and mattress pads for the bed. Closet organizers, short bookshelves, lamps and nightlights for the rooms. New shampoo, conditioner, body wash, loofas and toothbrushes and toothpaste for in the bathroom. They don’t have too much on lists besides the basics because they want Ben and Elizabeth to be able to help pick things out too once they’re a little more settled.

Stiles gets Emily out of the backseat easily enough once they’re parked and they walk hand in hand toward the building. Just as he goes to grab a cart someone else reaches for the same one. But when he looks over his annoyance fades into surprise when he sees Talia’s smiling face.

“I invited myself,” she says with no hint of remorse.

Stiles just smiles, happy to have the help and advice of a mother at his disposal.

“Derek told me you do that sometimes,” he says with a smirk and Talia looks offended.

“That boy,” she says shaking her head, obviously joking around.

Stiles lets her pull the cart out and grabs a basket for himself. Talia and Emily almost immediately disappear into the clothing section and Stiles resigns himself to spending the next hour in Target shopping for things that aren’t necessarily on the list.

After making sure Emily has the list, Stiles starts to wander off by himself. Derek’s birthday is coming up and Stiles hasn’t thought of anything that he wants to get him. So he finds himself in the men’s section where he finds a tie for Derek and a shirt for himself. He stops and grabs a new book Derek’s been meaning to read and makes his way around the store, keeping and ear out for his daughter’s laughter.

Talia finds him half an hour later with the cart full of all the things on the list and a few more. He’s lost in thought and startles when she touches his shoulder.

“What’s got you so focused?” she asks him with an easy smile.

He nods, “Just thinking. I have a quilt that my mom’s mom made and it was my favorite blanket in our house  growing up. I know how to do the basics like replacing buttons and I could probably hand stitch a patch on something but I’ve never used a sewing machine.”

He pauses before shaking his head at himself more than anything.

“One project at a time,” he decides, looking up at Talia who’s smiling at him.

“Probably a wise decision. If you come back to this ever,” she says as she gestures to all the sewing supplies on the display, “my mom probably still has all her supplies. I’m sure she’d love to teach you if you want to learn.”

“Thanks,” Stiles says, quietly grateful for the seriousness of the offer and that she didn’t laugh or judge him for his musings.

He looks down at the cart to see what her and Emily have picked out. He’s running through the list in his mind and he’s seeing a lot more in the cart than what was on it. He picks through everything a little confused before he looks back up at Talia.

“Um, is some of this for you? Some of this isn’t on the list.”

Talia just shakes her head at him with a genuine smile as Emily comes walking up with a new bottle of mouthwash. Dammit he forgot that.

“I put in some extra things you might need.”

Stiles reaches into the cart and grabs a box, pulling it out to make sure he’s reading it right.

“A queen sized air mattress?” he questions.

“Just in case the sounds the house makes at night freaks them out and one or both of you want to sleep in the room with them. Better to get them used to their own beds than have them sleep in yours.”

Stiles hadn’t even _thought_ of that. Talia just pats his shoulder as he stares at the box in his hands, suddenly feeling a little lost and slightly confused.

“You’ll be fine. Let’s get all checked out.”

Eventually they get everything bought, on Talia’s credit card because Stiles couldn’t stop her, bagged up and in the car. He and Emily bid Talia goodbye and drive home, hoping to see Derek’s made as much progress as they have. Stiles is happy to see delivery trucks already at their house when they get there.

It pays to be a Hale, apparently.

Stiles would bet with Talia’s reputation and her habit of renovating houses, companies in town are more than happy to make any accommodations for her, even if it’s her son and not her directly.  They didn’t park in front of the garage so Stiles pulls in to his normal spot, closing the garage door behind him out of habit.

He doesn’t realize he’s operating on auto pilot until he’s methodically taking everything out the bags in one of the still empty bedrooms and he hasn’t even said hi to Derek. Sadie is there next to him as he moves from laying out the new purchases to walking throughout the house, gathering dirty dishes from the bedrooms and the living room.

He loads the dishwasher, washing the dishes left in the sink after, Sadie brushing against his legs every few minutes. Then he moves to the laundry room, switching the loads from washer to dryer and starting another load. He folds the clean laundry and sorts the rest of the dirty into different piles for the next couple of washes.

Derek finds him spraying the new mattresses with Febreze and opening the windows in the bedroom across from theirs a little while later. When Derek touches his arm lightly it’s like Stiles wakes up, the fog in his brain clearing in an instant and he startles a little.

“Hey,” Derek says softly and Stiles sees the worry on his face, which only increases the unease Stiles has been feeling since he was standing in Target.

“Come with me,” Derek directs, taking the bottle of Febreze out of Stiles’ hand, wrapping an arm around Stiles’ shoulders and guiding him across the hall. It’s only when he’s pressed up against Derek that he realizes how tense he is, muscles almost sore from how rigidly he’s been walking around.

When Derek sits him down on the bed Stiles makes a conscious effort to relax. His shoulders drop and his spine loosens as Derek kneels in front of Stiles, chest bracketed by Stiles’ knees as he plants his hands on the bed behind Stiles. Derek lets him breath for a few moments before his hands leave the bed and move to gently run up and down Stiles’ sides, calming him even further. He takes a deep shuddering breath and looks at Derek finally.

“There you are,” Derek says quietly with a small smile, “What has my fiancé zombie walking around the house cleaning everything in sight?”

Stiles sighs a little, grateful that Derek’s comfortable to ask him straight out what’s going on in his brain. His dad always lets him stew longer than he should but Derek somehow knows the perfect time to interrupt his downward spiral. He lifts a heavy hand and gently runs his fingers through Derek’s dark hair.

“Got a little worried,” Stiles admits and Derek raises an eyebrow.

Stiles just rolls his eyes.

“Fine, a lot worried. I was so excited about all this and thought I had everything figured out but then we were shopping and your mom brought something up that I hadn’t even _considered_ and it went from there. What if what we’ve seen of these kids is just a front? What if they don’t get along with Emily? Or the rest of our family? I just- I was so ready to give them a home I didn’t stop to think if we’re the _right_ home.”

Relief flickers across Derek’s face and he leans up, pressing a chaste kiss to Stiles lips. He stands and shoos Stiles back until they’re both on the bed laying facing each other, arms wrapped around the other. Stiles’ muscles are actually sore now that he’s relaxed and he melts into Derek’s embrace.

“We are the right family, Stiles. We’re going to give those kids whatever they need, even if it means changing how we do things, or we start doing new things to do it. I have faith in us, we’re going to be just fine. Besides, between your dad and my parents, we have a lot of years of experience we can ask advice from.”

Stiles sighs again letting Derek’s words calm his racing thoughts until he’s drowsy and can’t hardly keep his eyes open. Derek kisses his forehead and says something about resting until supper is ready. Stiles feels the bed shift and the heat from Derek disappears and gets replaced with Sadie’s presence. She immediately lays down next to him, letting him throw an arm over her back using her half as a pillow. Soon enough he’s drifting to sleep, letting go of most of his worries in the process.

**May 1 st **

Stiles is so pleased with where he’s at in life at the moment. He’s standing in the foyer of the new house, coffee in hand with a sense of purpose that’s quite enjoyable. It’s 7:00am and the only reason he’s awake this early on his day off is because Talia has their day completely scheduled out.

When he and Derek had told Talia they were looking at new houses she’d been completely supportive. Stiles had found out that technically the house they live in right now is in Talia’s name. So he wanted Talia’s, not permission, but her input in the decision a little. Also, he figured, since it’s kind of her money in Derek’s trust fund it would probably be polite to consult her.

Derek had been fairly indifferent to Stiles’ concerns. But Stiles knew he’d feel more comfortable with everything if they at least told Talia they were thinking about moving before they already had a house found. Of course, once they found the house in the woods, Talia had immediately offered her help in decorating it.

It’s been a little over a week since they signed and closed on the house and Talia had this weekend planned out before the ink dried.

The plan was something like, meet at the house at 7:00 so Talia could look around and get a better sense of the house itself and then they would make a list of stops to get everything they need, and then spend the rest of the day shopping.

The inspection from Talia, Stiles thinks, is fairly successful, despite the fact that he has a much longer list of things to buy than he anticipated. He knew there would be some things to fix and adjust in the house. Nothing too drastic, he didn’t think. Just a few lights and a new coat of paint to start with. He had figured they could do a little bit at a time to make it their own place.

Talia however, found more than just a need for paint and new lights.

When they leave the house an hour later Stiles understands why Talia wanted a whole day to go shopping. Based on what she thinks needs to be changed, they’re going to buy paint, lights, flooring, new kitchen appliances, curtains, plants, and pool chemicals and upkeep tools.

It’s all a little more daunting than Stiles was anticipating but when they break for lunch they’re actually most of the way done with the list. After lunch they tackle what’s left: stopping to look at appliances, ordering the new bathroom flooring, setting up a time for their living room to be wired with surround sound and new lighting, and ordering new countertops for the kitchen. That ends up only taking them a few more hours before they’re driving back out to the house to unload all their purchases.

Stiles and Talia unload the paint, plants, boxed light fixtures, and pool stuff into the garage. Careful to keep everything slightly organized. Talia takes the curtains inside to the kitchen and then they part ways for the day, with promises to meet at the old house to start packing in the morning.

Stiles gets home to supper on the table and he couldn’t be more grateful. He knows, and appreciates, how much work he and Talia accomplished in just the one day, but he is _tired._ Derek made him chicken alfredo with fettuccini noodles but he can’t even properly enjoy it as his eyes keep drooping shut.

Derek ends up hustling Stiles into the shower after supper is cleaned up and then Stiles falls into bed and falls asleep even though it’s hardly past 10 o’clock.

*

It takes Derek only a handful of minutes to go from asleep to awake. He’s not one of those people that needs half an hour, a cold shower and a cup of coffee to wake up in the mornings. Sure, he can lay in bed for half an hour after he’s woken up, checking his phone and emails. But really, he’s fully awake and coherent minutes after waking up to his alarm going off.

Stiles was like that when they first got together. Derek would hazard a guess that waking up slowly isn’t an option when you’re in the military in a warzone on a regular basis. But he’s noticed the longer Stiles is home the slower he is to wake up. Lately, Derek’s taken to just lying in bed and watching Stiles slowly emerge from his sleep for twenty minutes.

Creepy? Maybe.

Alarmingly adorable? Definitely.

Last night Derek had put Stiles to bed after he’d spent the entire day with his mother dealing with basic renovations for their new house. When Derek moved back from New York, not only did he not have time to help make changes to the house his mom had bought, but he didn’t care all that much what his house looked like. This time around, Derek still doesn’t want to get caught in the whirlwind of activity his mother stirs up when she’s decorating a house. But he did want some input on this house so he may have, conveniently, not discouraged Stiles from participating in helping Talia.

He doesn’t think Stiles has caught on to that yet.

Stiles fell asleep almost immediately last night but this morning, Derek’s been watching him grumble and mumble and mash his face in his pillow, refusing to wake up for the last fifteen minutes. He’s not about to steal away any of Stiles’ sleep. Not when they have a long weekend ahead of them.

Derek’s family is coming over to the house in town today to start packing up the non-essentials. Lamps, rugs, end tables, office furniture, stuffed animals. Everything but the big stuff like the beds, couches, clothes and the kitchen table is getting organized and packed up. Derek is staying to supervise the sorting and making decisions about what goes to the new house and what gets donated.

Stiles is going back over to the new house with Talia and John to start making the changes with the supplies they bought yesterday. Changing out light fixtures, ripping up the floor in the first floor bathroom, painting the first floor bedroom and working on the landscaping are all on the list of things Derek knows his mother wants to accomplish today.

Then tomorrow, even though it’s Sunday, Derek knows his mother has made arrangements for the new appliances for the kitchen to be delivered, their new washer and dryer are being installed, and the guy going to outfit the living room with surrounds sound and recessed lights. And in the midst of all that his family is going to be moving all the boxes they pack up today from this house to the other.

It’s all very exciting and Derek has this now familiar feeling of hope in his chest when he thinks about their new, bigger house. How it has room for their family to grow and all the changes that will go with adopting or fostering kids.

Stiles finally rolls over onto his back and sighs after twenty minutes of easing into wakefulness.

“I’m up,” he says quietly, voice rough with sleep. He smacks his dry lips a couple times and bats a hand at Derek’s chest. “I’m ready for anything,” he says even with his eyes still closed.

Derek laughs lightly and rolls over on top of Stiles’ chest and kisses him. Once, twice on the lips. Stiles’ arms wrap around him and Derek shifts them so they’re on their sides holding each other. Stiles’ eyes are open now, a small pleased smile on his face.

“You’re ready for another day with my mother, the slave driver?”

Stiles groans and rolls out of the bed to shuffle towards the bathroom.

“If it means our house is as pretty as hers I’ll let her boss me around for a _week_. But first, a shower.”

Derek laughs as he crawls out of bed behind Stiles. He thinks given all the things they’ve worked through already, if they survive this move without any major blow ups, Stiles and Derek can make it through anything together.

 

**September 7 th **

Labor Day weekend is always bittersweet to Stiles. It’s the last weekend of summer but it means fall is coming and with it a new year of school for his kid. Well, _kids_ now. It’s been a little over two months since Derek and Stiles brought Elizabeth and Ben into their home and lives. Two months in and they couldn’t be happier.

The ‘honeymoon’ period only lasted for the first three weeks, which surprised Stiles a little. Those first three weeks Lizzy and Ben were the most well behaved, easy to please kids either he or Derek had ever dealt with, after Emily of course. They kept their toys neat, asked for things they needed or wanted, always took a bath or shower when it was time.

Even sleeping wasn’t that big of an issue. Although Stiles became infinitely grateful that Talia had been at Target with him and bought the air mattress. For the first week, either he or Derek had to sleep in the room with the kids. But Stiles could understand that, houses make noises, and it takes a while to get used to them. And while they had chosen to share a room initially, because that’s what they’d always done, they both would go to bed at bedtime and go right to sleep.

Then the honeymoon ended.

It ended up being the hottest week of the summer which inherently made Stiles cranky. For someone who spent a few years in the desert, Stiles is a wimp when it comes to heat and being uncomfortable. But then once or twice a day, Lizzy and Ben started to, test their boundaries as it were.

Telling Derek to get them something to drink instead of asking.

Leaving toys in the middle of the hallway.

Tore what was a small tear in his jeans into a huge hole until they became unwearable.

Getting up at night to play games with each other instead of going to sleep.

By the time Saturday rolled around and Lizzy had just smashed and tore apart the cake that Emily made, Stiles was ready to snap. Derek was too, but his patient teacher mode kicked in, cleaned up the mess and sat Lizzy and Ben down in the living room until Stiles had cooled off. Once they were both a little bit calmer they were able to explain how things go in the Stilinski-Hale household and that there are rules that need to be followed.

Stiles, under his annoyance, was worried if simply laying out the rules and the consequences of not following them would actually make a difference. He’d never been much of a disciplinarian with Emily mostly because aside from a few terrible months when she’d just turned three, he didn’t need to be one. Derek doesn’t seem to be any different on that front either.

It’s not an immediate change, no kid is perfect, but after another week of testing out what’s a rule and what isn’t, things go back to running smoothly.

Lizzy is loud and busy and distractible and Stiles’ dad gets a good laugh over the fact that Stiles now has a kid just like he used to be. But Stiles and Derek are young men still who, most days, can keep up with her rambling thoughts and her restless pace. They work on having calm time where they read books or put together a puzzle or watch an episode of some kids show. And when she still seems to have ants in her pants, they all go for a jog.

Everyone, Stiles, Derek, Emily, Lizzy, Ben and Sadie all throw on some outside clothes and go for a stroll in the woods. After they finished updating the house and making changes to the patio, Derek had started looking for and clearing out trails. So now when they do need to get out and get rid of some energy they have a place to do it.

Ben is almost completely opposite his sister. He’s quiet and focused but once again, John is laughing because Ben is _sneaky_. Stiles doesn’t even realize Ben had disappeared before he came walking in the back door covered in leaves.

“Weren’t you- were you not just upstairs reading like ten minutes ago?? When did you go outside!”

And where Lizzy needs the exercise to get rid of her oodles of energy, Ben needs the exercise to get up and do something. Stiles thinks between his books and the iPad Ben would not move all day except to eat and use the bathroom. But Ben is also very smart, just like Emily; they get along better than Stiles could have ever dreamed.

He also loves animals, Derek discovered. One day, Ben spent almost two hours washing, drying and brushing Sadie until her coat was shining. And when they went to the mall, Ben had actually requested they stop at the pet store where he proceeded to greet every animal by name. Stiles could only watch him stare longingly at the display of kittens before he cracked.

Boots, a grey tabby with four white paws is almost always attached to either Ben or Stiles.

That’s why Stiles has a tiny kitten perched on his shoulder as he puts the finishing touches on the buffet of food they have set up for the holiday. This year, the Hale family and Stiles’ family are having their Labor Day barbeque at Stiles’ and Derek’s house. Derek volunteered to keep the kids occupied so he’s the one in the swimming pool with their three kids and Laura’s daughter and Alex’s son. The twins are still too little but Stiles set up a tiny kid pool next to the big one so Isaac and Allison are splashing around with Amber and Jacob there instead.

The day marks more endings and beginnings than just summer and school though for Stiles. Yesterday was his last day at the bakery. In one of those funny ways that life works out, the ladies at the bakery had actually found someone who wanted to work for them for a few years and then take over the business. Stiles stayed on until the new guy was trained, but the ladies while sad to see him go, were overjoyed with the new plan. Now they could retire.

And Stiles needed to be done soon anyway because his first week of teaching is in two weeks. He hasn’t told his temporary commanding officer that he’s seriously considering the long term version of this commitment. He can’t give any false impressions and doesn’t want to really get his hopes up too high. But…he’s pretty excited anyway.

Derek has his classroom together and has everything ready to start a new year of class. Emily and Ben are in the same fourth grade class with Miss. Yukimura. Lizzy is registered for a ‘tots’ class two days a week and Stiles is ready for lots of one on one time with her at the house. Sadie doesn’t have much to do these days, his last nightmare being a singular one after the Daehler ordeal, but on the occasion Stiles’ anxiety gets the better of him she’s there at his side. And Boots is still figuring out her place in the house, mostly, either on Stiles, on Ben or on Sadie.

Stiles' future, his and Derek’s future, isn’t the future anymore. It’s happening now and Stiles doesn’t think he’s ever felt more blessed. And when his husband-to-be steps out of the pool, water sluicing down his toned arms and lick-able abs, the feeling just grows stronger.

He hands Derek a towel, watching with a soft, happy smile as he dries off his body and scrubs the towel over his thick dark hair. He catches Stiles staring and quirks an eyebrow at him.

“What?”

But Stiles just shakes his head and pulls Derek to him, gently kissing him once.

“Do you think Derek-from-New York would have believed this is how his life would end up? I know Stiles-stuck-in-Afghanistan wouldn’t.”

Derek just smirks and flips the towel so it’s around the back of Stiles’ neck which he uses to pull Stiles even closer.

 

 

“Probably not. But, I really wouldn’t want to have my life, any other way.”

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have to thank [ereborne](http://ereborne.tumblr.com/) for helping me when I got stuck with this story in places and looking things over for me.  
> As usual, please please come talk to me on my [tumblr](http://acountrygirlsfun.tumblr.com/) or leave a comment here it never fails to make me smile :)  
> A side note: this was my first time writing anything smutty so go easy on me.
> 
> There's an edit I made for this story on my tumblr [here](http://acountrygirlsfun.tumblr.com/post/127593694908/teen-wolf-au-protecting-home-by-countrygirlsfun/)
> 
> ALSO  
> This is not the end for this AU. ~~I have almost a dozen life snapshots to write at some point.~~ They snapshots have started! Head on over to part 3!


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